mmmmmm 


fummn i  ■> 


or  tlie 

Inland  S 


CHARLES  KENDALL 
HARRINGTON 


SEP  20  191 Q 


BV  3445  .H38 

Harrington,  Charles  Kendall 

1858-1920. 
Captain  Bickel  of  the  Inlan 

Sea 


Captain  Bickel 

OF  THE 

Inland  Sea 


Captain  Bickel  on  deck  of  new  Fukuin  Maru 


^/ 


Captain  Bickel 


OF  THE 


Inland  Sea 


SEP  20  19LQ 


By 


CHARLES  KENDALL  HARRINGTON 

Missionary  of  the  American  Baptist  Foreign  Mission 
Society y  in  Tokyo,  Japan 


ILLUSTRATED 


New  York  Chicago 

Fleming    H.     Revell    Company 

London  and         Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1919,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
London :  2 1  Paternoster  Square 
Edinbuigh:      75    Princes    Street 


Dedicated  to 

The  ^een  of  the  Cabin ^ 
The  Lady  of  the  Little  White  Ship^ 

who  made  of  the  "  Fukuin  Maru  "  a  Chris- 
tian homey  and  through  the  good  cheer  and 
sunshine  of  that  home  gave  to  many  of  the 
Island  Folk  of  the  Inland  Sea  their  first 
glimpse  of  the  beauty  and  winsomeness  of 
Him  whose  membership  in  the  Holy  Family y 
in  Bethlehem  and  Nazareth^  has  sweetened 
and  sanctifiedy  for  East  and  Westy  home  life 
and  family  affection 


^^If  we  wish  to  bring  help  to  a  man  we  must 
be  willing  to  pay  the  cost^ 

— Captain  Bickel. 

^^Is  it  worth  while  2  The  man  who  comes  and 
mocks y  the  man  who  cotnes  for  rice,  the  Pharisee 
— is  it  worth  while  to  spend  a  life  on  these  ?  My 
God,  t7iy  God,  hoiv  could  I  doubt  Thee  ?  Take 
my  life  and  use  it  to  the  last  shred  for  whom- 
soever Thou  wilty 

— Captain  Bickel. 

**For,  mark  you,  all  love  conveys  the  lover  to 
the  beloved.  The  very  secret  of  love  is  self-im- 
partation.  Love  can  never  content  herself  with 
the  gift  of  things.  Charity  gives  things.  Love 
always  gives  herself .^^ 

— J.  H.  JOWETT,  D.D. 


Preface 

IT  was  witli  no  ordinary  regret  tliat  I  learned 
of  the  irreparable  loss  which  the  cause  of 
foreign  missions,  and  in  particular  our  Bap- 
tist Mission  in  Japan,  had  suffered  in  the  unex- 
jjected  and,  humanly  speaking,  untimely  death  of 
our  beloved  Captain  Bickel.  His  rapidly  growing 
work  for  the  Islanders  of  the  Inner  and  Outer  Seas 
was  not  only  the  pride  of  our  Mission,  but  a 
stimulus  to  every  evangelistic  enterprise  in  Japan ; 
while  to  multitudes  also  in  other  lands  the  story 
of  the  Little  White  Ship  was  one  of  the  most  fasci- 
nating chapters  of  the  modern  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
Even  to  many  who  had  only  a  moderate  knowledge 
of  foreign  missions  in  general,  the  Inland  Sea,  the 
Fukuin  Maru,  and  Captain  Bickel,  had  become 
household  words.  But  to  me,  who  have  known 
our  Captain  in  the  intimacy  of  his  home,  both 
ashore  and  afloat ;  who  have  sailed  with  him  many 
weeks  through  the  blue  lanes  of  the  Inland  Sea, 
and  have  tramped  with  him  many  hours  over  the 
rough  hill-paths  of  his  Island  parish,  he  was  not 
only  an  ideal  missionary,  whom  I  held  in  the  high- 
est honour  both  for  his  own  and  for  his  work^s 
sake,  but  a  warm  personal  friend,  on  whose  too 
early  grave  it  is  a  privilege  to  lay  this  humble 
tribute  of  affection. 

I  trust  that  this  all  too  inadequate  account  of 
the  life  and  work  of  our  Mariner-Missionary  may 

7 


8  PEEFACE 

not  only  serve  to  keep  alive  the  memory  of  one  of 
God^s  heroes,  one  of  nature's  noblemen;  but  may 
awaken  in  the  hearts  of  many  a  livelier  interest  in 
that  foreign  missionary  enterprise  which  Christ 
has  laid  upon  His  followers  as  of  paramount  im- 
portance, and  to  share  in  which  is  the  greatest 
adventure  conceivably  possible  to  the  human  soul. 

C.  K.  H. 

Sydney,  Nova  Scotia. 

The  Ides  of  March,  1918. 


Contents 


I. 

A  German  Patriot         .        .        .        . 

13 

II. 

The  Making  of  Captain  Bickel     . 

35 

III. 

The  Inland  Sea 

53 

IV. 

Island  Folk 

64 

V. 

The  Little  White  Ship 

74 

VI. 

Her  Maiden  Voyage       .        .         .        . 

90 

VII. 

In  Hiogo  Bay 

94 

VIII. 

The  Plan  of  Campaign  .        .        .        . 

100 

IX. 

A  Voyage  of  Discovery 

105 

X. 

The  Camel's  Nose  .... 

126 

XL 

The  Transformation  of  the  Crew 

132 

XII. 

Shepherds  of  the  Isles 

.     145 

XIII. 

Winning  the  Islanders 

.     166 

XIV. 

Women  and  Children  of  the  Islands 

.     178 

XV. 

Christmas  in  the  Inland  Sea 

.     186 

XVI. 

The  Home  On  the  Ship 

.     195 

XVII. 

A  New  Era 

.      201 

XVIII. 

A  New  "  Fukuin  Maru  " 

.      210 

XIX. 

The  Shadow  of  War 

.      222 

XX. 

Some  Island  Stories 

.      233 

10 

CONTENTS 

XXL 

Some  More  Island  Stories    . 

.    245 

XXII. 

The  Captain's  Last  Cruise     » 

.    254 

XXIII. 

"  Sunset  and  Evening  Bell  " 

.    265 

XXIV. 

A  Triumphal  Funeral   . 

.    270 

XXV. 

After-Glow  .... 

.    284 

XXVI. 

The  Victory  of  Love     . 

.    294 

Illustrations 

Facing  page 
Captain  Bickel  on  Deck  of  New  Fitkuin  Maru  ,   Frofitispiece 

Outline  Map  Showing  the  Inland  Sea  of  Japan       .         .       60 

Old  Fukuin  Maru  in  Cove  at  Miyanoura,  Omi  Shima    .       84 

Captain  Bickel,  Family,  and  Crew         •         ...       96 

New   Fukuin   Maru   in   Dock   for   Equipment   After 

Launching    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .112 

New  Fukuin  Maru  at  Anchor       .         .         .         ,         .132 

Bo's'n  Hirata  and  Group  He  Is  Teaching      .         .         .     142 

Pastor  Shibata  with  Group  of  Christians  at  Agenosho, 

Oshima        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .164 

Baptism  at  Tonosho,  Shozu  Shima        .         .         .         .176 

Setoda  Kindergarten  Graduates,  March,  191 7         .         .     182 

Kindergarten  at  Mitonnosho,  Innoshima        .         .         .192 

Baptismal  Service  on  the   Seashore  at  Setoda,  Ikuchi 

Shima 214 

"Old  Pilgrim's  Progress '* 236 

Captain  Kobayashi  and  Group  of  Students    .        .        .     248 

Ninth  Annual  Meeting  of  Fukuin  Maru  Church,  April, 

191 7,  at  Tonosho,  Shozu  Shima     ....     266 

Pastors  Ito  and  Shibata  with  Group  of  Christians  and 

Enquirers  at  Hirado,  Hirado  Shima       .        .         .     290 

11 


God  tttleth;  then  with  anxious  mien 

"Why  doubt  and  fear, 
Since  He  in  paths  unknown,  unseen, 

In  love  is  near, 

To  counsel,  comfort  and  uphold. 
Till  gently  as  the  dawn  of  day 

His  plans  and  purposes  unfold. 
And  light  is  shed  upon  my  way? 

— Z.  W.  Bickel 


A  GERMAN  PATRIOT 

ABOUT  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
in  that  loose  aggregation  of  kingdoms, 
grand-duchies,  duchies,  principalities  and 
free  cities  which  was  later  to  become  the  German 
Empire,  there  was  great  political  and  social  unrest. 
A  widespread  movement  for  reform  was  on  foot, 
directed  not  only  against  the  oppressive  rule  of 
the  several  kings  and  kinglets,  dukes  and  dukelets, 
who  happened  to  occupy  the  seats  of  authority,  but 
also  toward  the  amelioration  of  the  unhappy  po- 
litical and  economic  condition  of  the  country  as  a 
whole.  To  weld  all  these  incoherent  fragments 
into  one  broad  Fatherland,  in  which  a  united  Ger- 
man People  should  enjoy  constitutional  govern- 
ment and  popular  freedom,  such  as  France,  Eng- 
land and  America  had  achieved ;  to  add  a  Germany 
to  the  list  of  great,  progressive,  modern  free  na- 
tions, in  which  those  who  sat  in  high  places  should 
not  be  autocrats,  nor  those  who  toiled  in  lowly 
places  serfs,  was  the  lofty  ambition  which  kindled 
the  souls  of  the  finest  men  of  the  German  race. 
As  was  natural,  and  inevitable,  it  was  among  the 
choice  young  men,  and  especially  among  the  stu- 
dents in  the  universities,  that  the  patriotic  fervour 
burned  most  ardently,  and  the  discontent  with 
things  as  they  were  which  had  long  been  smoulder- 

13 


14  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

ing  througliout  tlie  nation  flamed  out  into  open 
advocacy  of  revolution. 

But  tlie  German  people  were  not  yet  prepared  to 
carry  a  revolutionary  movement  to  success.  The 
demand  for  political  union,  for  constitutional  gov- 
ernment, for  democratic  institutions,  for  tlie  re- 
moval of  the  disabilities  under  which  the  common 
people  laboured  and  the  elevation  of  the  peasantry 
from  the  condition  of  practical  serfdom  in  which 
they  were  held,  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  rulers 
and  courts  of  the  various  kingdoms  and  princi- 
palities, to  whom,  after  the  fashion  of  such  folk, 
the  continued  enjoyment  of  their  little  brief  au- 
thority was  of  more  moment  than  the  welfare  of  a 
nation.  Bismarck,  that  man  of  blood  and  iron, 
already  secretly  planning  to  erect  a  German  Em- 
pire under  Prussian  hegemony,  led  the  Prussian 
court  against  the  popular  demands,  whether  for  a 
united  or  for  a  democratic  Germany,  and  his  hos- 
tility to  the  reform  movement  was  copied  in  the 
other  states.  The  heavy  hand  of  government  came 
down  upon  those  who  preached  the  revolutionary 
doctri'nes.  Many  were  imprisoned.  Others  suf- 
fered the  spoiling  of  their  goods.  Some  sealed 
their  testimony  with  their  blood.  Some  escaped 
the  edge  of  the  sword  by  flight,  exile  the  reward  of 
their  patriotism.  Across  the  sea  to  the  I^ew  World, 
to  find  refuge  under  the  shadow  of  "  Old  Glory,^' 
came  some  of  the  choicest  spirits  of  Germany,  who 
by  their  ability  and  energy  were  to  make  a  splendid 
contribution  to  the  development  of  their  adopted 
country,  and  to  win  for  themselves  position  and 
influence.  As  notable  Instances  may  be  mentioned 
Edward  Retz,  and  Karl  Schurz,  of  the  latter  of 


A  GEEMAN  PATEIOT  IB 

wliom  it  has  been  said  tliat  only  the  fact  of  his 
foreign  birth  stood  between  him  and  the  highest 
ofice  in  the  gift  of  the  American  commonwealth. 
It  is  of  interest  to  note  also,  in  this  connection,  the 
case  of  Hans  Kudlick, — not  a  German  indeed,  but 
an  Austrian, — who  at  the  time  of  the  revolutionary 
movement  among  the  German  States  championed 
the  cause  of  freedom  and  democracy  in  his  own 
Fatherland,  and  brought  about  the  liberation  of 
fourteen  millions  of  Austrian  peasants  from  a  con- 
dition of  serfdom,  but  who  also  found  it  discreet  to 
join  the  procession  of  emigrants  to  the  New  World, 
and  who  died  the  other  day,  in  his  adopted  country, 
at  the  ripe  age  of  ninety-four. 

Among  those  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  German  blood 
who  for  love  of  the  Fatherland  were  obliged  to 
forsake  the  Fatherland,  was  the  family  of  a  certain 
well-to-do  farmer  of  Weinheim,  in  the  southern 
duchy  of  Baden,  Bickel  by  name.  The  early  for- 
bears of  the  Bickel  family  had  come  of  hardy 
mountain  stock,  with  their  home  among  the  Tyro- 
lian  Alps.  Thence,  centuries  ago,  they  migrated 
to  what  is  now  southern  Germany  and  we  next 
hear  of  them  as  the  von  Bickels  of  Bickelburg. 
There  for  many  generations  they  held  sway,  father 
and  son,  as  Barons  of  the  Castle,  holding  the  rank 
and  enjoying  the  culture  and  training  of  feudal 
lords,  down  to  modern  times.  Goodman  Bickel, 
however,  the  father  of  the  hero  of  this  chapter,  was 
no  baron,  but  just  a  plain,  hard-working,  intelligent 
yeoman.  With  the  aid  of  his  sturdy  young  sons 
he  tilled  a  stretch  of  fruitful  acres,  and  was  also 
owner  and  manager  of  a  stage  line  which  crossed 
the  duchy  from  north  to  south. 


16  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

The  eldest  son,  Philipp,  had  shown  an  unusual 
aptitude  for  learning,  and  at  the  instance  of  his 
teachers  had  been  sent  to  Heidelberg,  in  the  north- 
ern part  of  Baden,  for  more  advanced  courses  of 
study  than  the  Weinheim  schools  could  provide. 
Thence  he  had  returned,  in  1847,  to  his  native  town, 
and  had  joined  himself  as  apprentice  to  a  notary 
of  the  place,  with  the  expectation  of  entering  the 
service  of  the  state.  When  the  agitation  for  re- 
form broke  out  both  Farmer  Bickel  and  his  eldest 
son  Philipp,  then  a  youth  of  nineteen,  cast  them- 
selves heartily  into  it ;  the  former,  perhaps,  chiefly 
out  of  sympathy  for  the  downtrodden  peasantry, 
with  whose  condition  his  calling  must  have  made 
him  intimately  acquainted,  and  whose  wrongs  he 
probably  shared;  the  latter,  as  a  young  man  in 
public  life,  and  fresh  from  the  debating  clubs  of 
the  University,  more  for  political  reasons. 

When  the  storm  of  government  opposition  to  the 
revolutionary  movement  burst,  the  Bickels  were 
among  those  who  sought  asylum  in  the  great  Ke- 
public  of  the  West.  First  came  Father  Bickel, 
with  his  wife  and  the  younger  members  of  the 
family.  Leaving  behind  them  the  wide  farmhouse 
and  its  fertile  fields,  to  be  promptly  confiscated, 
doubtless,  by  the  government,  they  crossed  the 
desert  of  the  salt  sea  to  the  Land  of  Promise,  the 
Home  of  Freedom.  Arrived  in  America  they  joined 
the  company  of  westward  bound  adventurers  on 
the  trail  to  what  was  then  the  far  frontier,  and 
settled  on  a  small  farm,  or  rather  what  was  the 
makings  of  a  small  farm,  on  the  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan,  in  Illinois.  This  little  holding,  of  ten, 
acres,  is  now  Lincoln  Park,  one  of  the  beautiful 


A  GEEMAN  PATEIOT  17 

breathing  spaces  of  the  city  of  Chicago.  A  fe-w: 
months  later,  however,  cholera  broke  out  in  the 
neighbourhood,  and  the  Bickels  sold  out  and  re- 
moved to  where  Evanston  now  stands,  where  they 
secured  another  piece  of  land,  this  time  of  180 
acres. 

Meanwhile  the  son  Philipp  had  taken  passage  on 
a  sailing  vessel  bound  to  New  York.  The  voyage 
must  have  been  a  long  one,  for  we  are  told  that  the 
stock  of  provisions  ran  so  low  that  the  ship's  com- 
pany was  reduced  to  a  rice  diet.  Three  rice  meals 
a  day  is  a  synon^Tn  for  good  living  in  wide  regions 
of  the  earth;  but  in  our  patriot-exile,  accustomed 
to  the  substantial  fare  of  a  German  farmhouse,  it 
bred  such  a  dislike  for  this  wholesome  cereal  that 
never  afterward  could  he  be  induced  to  taste  it. 

W^en  the  ship  at  last  docked  at  New  York, 
Philipp  at  once  struck  out  into  the  country  to  seek 
work  as  a  farm  labourer.  At  the  first  farmhouse 
at  which  he  called  to  ask  for  employment  the 
farmer  pointed  to  the  young  man's  hands,  soft  and 
white  from  a  student's  desk,  and  remarked,  "  'Tis 
not  much  work  you'll  do  with  hands  like  that." 
To  the  wise  a  word  is  sufficient.  At  the  next  farm- 
house our  student  took  care  to  keep  his  hands  in 
his  pockets,  and  was  engaged.  The  farmer  must 
have  been  surprised,  later,  when  Philipp's  hands 
came  into  sight ;  but  he  kept  to  his  bargain,  and  was 
delighted  to  find  that  he  had  not  merely  secured  a 
capable  farm  hand,  but  an  educated  man,  who  could 
speak  both  French  and  German,  and  who  became 
an  excellent  teacher  to  the  farmer's  children. 
After  a  short  stay  in  the  home  of  this  worthy  man, 
young  Bickel  took  the  road  again,  and  we  next 


18  CAPTAIH  BICKEL  ' 

find  him  manager  of  an  Indian  trading  post  at 
Waukegan,  in  Wisconsin. 

It  was  while  here  that  Philipp  Bickel  passed 
through  that  spiritual  experience  which  is  the  true 
starting  point  of  our  story.  Up  to  this  time  he 
had  had  no  personal  knowledge  of  the  grace  of  God. 
Born  into  a  Lutheran  family  at  a  time  when  Ger- 
man Lutheranism  had  already  well-nigh  lost  its 
spiritual  life,  the  atmosphere  of  Heidelberg  and 
the  influences  which  had  been  about  him  since  the 
close  of  his  student  life  had  left  him  practically  an 
infidel.  He  was  a  zealot  for  human  liberty,  but  a 
stranger  to  the  freedom  wherewith  Christ  makes 
His  people  free.  At  Waukegan  he  was  provi- 
dentially brought  into  friendly  relations  with  some 
pious  Baptists,  and  there  was  awakened  in  his  heart 
a  longing  for  that  true  liberty  which  is  spiritual, 
and  which  Christ  alone  can  bestow.  Under  the 
ministry  of  Eev.  I.  Cogshall,  a  faithful  preacher  of 
the  Gospel,  he  was  led  into  a  true  experience  of 
repentance  and  faith,  and  having  confessed  Christ 
by  baptism  in  the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan  was 
received  into  the  membership  of  the  Waukegan 
Church. 

From  Waukegan  Mr.  Bickel  removed  to  Louis- 
ville, Kentucky,  to  assume  the  editorship  of  a  Ger- 
man secular  paper  published  in  that  city.  His 
native  literary  ability,  superior  education  and 
legal  training  fitted  him  to  achieve  success  as  a 
journalist  and  politician,  while  his  experience  as 
champion  of  popular  rights  in  his  native  land,  and 
the  intimate  association  into  which  his  life  in 
America  had  brought  him  with  the  labouring 
classes,  served  to  render  him  an  acceptable  expo- 


A  GEEMAN  PATEIOT  19 

nent  of  democratic  ideas.  The  young  reformer, 
for  lie  was  yet  but  twenty-three,  was  so  vigorous 
and  outspoken  that  he  provoked  a  local  political 
storm.  The  proprietor  of  the  paper  took  sides 
against  the  editor,  and  went  so  far  as  to  threaten 
his  life,  revolver  in  hand.  Bickel,  however,  was  a 
man  of  powerful  physique.  He  wrenched  the 
weapon  from  the  hand  that  held  it,  and  the  pro- 
prietor suddenly  and  ignominiously  landed  at  the 
bottom  of  the  office  stairs,  and  there  received  the 
editor's  resignation.  Our  reformer's  hands  were 
free  for  higher  service.  "Disgusted  with  man's  per- 
versity, God's  time  for  Philipp  Bickel  had  come." 

From  the  very  beginning  of  his  Christian  life, 
the  pastor  and  members  of  the  Waukegan  Church 
had  been  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  here 
was  a  man  chosen  of  God  for  some  special  service, 
and  had  urged  him  to  prepare  himself  for  the 
Christian  ministry.  "  The  indomitable  energy  of 
the  man  had,  however,  already  secured  for  him  a 
very  desirable  position  in  life,  and  there  was  some- 
thing to  renounce  if  he  would  accept  the  dependent 
position  of  a  Baptist  preacher.  He  resolved  to 
apply  himself  with  renewed  energy  to  his  calling, 
and  so  to  earn  as  much  as  possible,  in  order  that 
he  might  give  freely  to  the  cause  of  Christ.  He 
aimed  especially  at  assisting  others  to  enter  upon 
the  service  from  which  he  himself  shrank.  Still, 
this  was  not  the  Lord's  purpose  for  him,  as  he  soon 
learned.  It  was  himself,  his  life,  that  was  wanted 
for  the  service  of  the  Master.  When  he  realized 
this  he  obeyed  the  call,  and  unreservedly  yielded 
himself  with  all  that  he  had  to  the  work  of  preach- 
ing the  Gospel." 


20  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

Captain  Bickel,  in  his  memorial  article,  "  The 
Old  Blacksmith/'  tells  us  that  it  was  by  the  words 
of  a  godly  Scotch  woman  in  a  country  store  that 
his  father  was  led  to  realize  his  obligation  to  Christ, 
and  in  penitence  and  gratitude  to  devote  himself 
to  the  active  service  of  his  Saviour;  and  indicates 
that  it  was  a  feeling  of  disappointment  at  the 
failure  of  his  second  attempt  to  act  the  champion 
of  popular  rights  which  prepared  his  heart  for 
the  message  God  sent  him  through  this  humble 
woman. 

Soon  after  the  revolver  episode  he  entered  the 
Baptist  Theological  Seminary  at  Kochester,  N.  Y., 
where  he  remained  until  1855,  taking  the  regular 
course  with  the  English-speaking  students,  and  at 
the  same  time  acting  as  tutor  to  the  young  men  in 
the  German  Department. 

A  memorable  incident  of  these  seminary  days  was 
the  visit  to  Rochester  of  Pastor  Oncken,  the  founder 
and  beloved  leader  of  the  Baptist  cause  in  middle 
Europe.  Dr.  Yohann  Gerhard  Oncken,  eminent  in 
learning  and  piety,  and  known  as  the  Apostle  of 
Germany,  was  now  in  the  midst  of  his  half  century 
of  fruitful  missionary  labour.  Being  on  a  visit  to 
America,  and  happening  to  hear  that  some  young 
Germans  were  at  Rochester  studying  for  the  min- 
istry, he  came  to  the  city  to  see  them.  The  stu- 
dents were  delighted  bej^ond  measure,  and  at  their 
request  Bickel,  who  had  already  given  proofs  of 
poetic  ability,  composed  an  ode  of  welcome  to  their 
distinguished  guest,  little  dreaming  that  he  him- 
self was  even  then  being  prepared  by  God  to  be 
Oncken's  successor. 

It  was  while  a  student  at  Rochester  that  Philipp 


A  GEEMAN  PATRIOT  21 

Bickel  met  and  wooed  and  won  tlie  gentle  and 
winsome  Christian  girl  wlio  was  to  share  his  home 
and  his  labours  for  half  a  century.  Katherine 
Clarke,  better  known  to  her  friends  as  Kitty,  was 
the  daughter  of  Kev.  Samuel  E.  Clarke,  who  had 
the  distinction  of  being  the  first  graduate  of  Ham- 
ilton Seminary.  He  undertook  pioneer  evangelistic 
work  in  the  Miami  Valley,  but  his  earthly  ministry 
was  soon  cut  short  by  death.  His  widow  became 
matron  of  the  Rochester  Orphanage,  a  position  she 
occupied  for  many  years.  Kitty,  who  had  been 
born  at  Utica,  N.  Y.,  May  10,  1834,  and  who  was 
therefore  still  in  her  teens  when  she  made  the 
acquaintance  of  her  future  husband,  accompanied 
her  mother  to  Rochester,  and  secured  a  position  as 
teacher  in  a  ladies'  seminary  in  that  city. 

Some  of  the  good  people  of  Rochester  presently 
began  to  take  notice  of  our  brawny,  brainy  young 
German  theologue,  and  wishing  to  put  in  his  way 
the  means  necessary  to  continue  his  studies,  or- 
ganized a  young  folks'  class  for  the  study  of  Ger- 
man, which  they  invited  him  to  conduct.  One  of 
his  pupils  was  Kitty  Clarke,  and  while  she  took 
from  him  her  first  lessons  in  the  speech  of  the 
Fatherland  they  taught  each  other  the  golden  lore 
of  that  which  was  from  the  beginning,  is  now  and 
ever  shall  be  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world.  The 
widow  Clarke,  however,  did  not  welcome  the  pros- 
pect of  her  daughter  Kitty  becoming  a  German 
hausfrau  and  with  the  hope  of  preventing  the 
match  required  the  young  man  to  absent  himself 
from  Rochester  for  two  years,  during  which  time 
there  was  to  be  no  correspondence  between  the 
lovers.    Philipp  agreed  to  this  proposal,  and  faith- 


22  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

fully  observed  tlie  terms  of  tlie  agreement.  But- 
love  lauglis  at  locksmiths.  Love-poems  began  to 
appear  in  the  several  papers  which  Kitty  was  ac- 
customed to  read,  and  in  these  she  heard  the  voice 
of  the  heart  of  her  lover,  and  was  content.  When 
the  appointed  time  had  elapsed  he  returned  to  claim 
his  bride,  and  they  were  married,  February  17, 
1857,  by  Rev.  I.  Scott,  in  the  city  of  Eochester. 
Thus  was  begun  a  home  life  not,  indeed,  without 
many  trials,  but  of  an  ideal  beauty  in  its  perfect 
mutual  love  and  trust  and  helpfulness. 

During  his  two  years'  probation  Mr.  Bickel  had 
taken  up  work  among  German  immigrants  in  Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio,  as  city  missionary  of  the  Ninth 
Street  Baptist  Church,  and  to  this  city  to  share  his 
labour  he  now  brought  his  young  wife.  The  new 
life,  in  a  strange  city,  among  foreigners,  was  not 
without  its  hardships  to  the  American  girl;  but 
with  a  simple  faith  and  love  she  went  forward  in 
the  path  of  duty,  taking  up  cheerfully  the  tasks 
that  God  set  to  her  hand,  and  daily  growing  in 
those  Christian  graces  which  won  the  hearts  of  all 
who  met  her. 

Mr.  BickePs  work  for  the  Germans  in  Cincinnati 
was  at  first  carried  on  in  the  open  air,  afterward 
in  an  old  engine  house,  and  later  in  what  was  a 
mere  shanty  on  Mary  Street.  He  had  not  chosen 
an  easy  field.  "  The  godless  German  district,'* 
Captain  Bickel  calls  it.  The  Germans  of  the 
■^neighbourhood  were  in  the  main  either  formalists 
in  religion  or  avowed  skeptics.  For  a  time  there 
was  open  and  strong  opposition,  extending  to  at- 
tempts at  personal  violence,  and  culminating  in  a 
plot  to  poison  the  missionary  and  his  family.     But 


A  GEEMAN  PATEIOT  23 

tlie  fearlessness  of  the  preaclier,  and  the  sweetness 
and  gentleness  of  tlie  preacher's  wife,  either 
daunted  or  won  the  leaders  of  the  opposition,  and 
the  work  of  evangelization  went  forward  with  in- 
creasing success. 

During  the  early  years  of  Mr.  Bickel's  ministry 
in  Cincinnati  he  added  to  his  city  mission  activities 
frequent  pioneer  preaching  trips  into  the  regions 
beyond.  Some  of  these  took  him  into  Kentucky. 
Those  were  the  days  of  the  great  agitation  through- 
out the  North  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  there 
was  little  love  lost  between  the  anti-slavery  state 
of  Ohio,  and  the  slave-holding  state  of  Kentucky. 
Some  of  those  who  w^ere  responsible  for  providing 
for  Mr.  BickeFs  support  as  city  missionary  ob- 
jected to  these  excursions  into  the  neighbouring 
state,  and  intimated  that  their  continuance  would 
mean  a  drop  of  one  hundred  dollars  in  his 
salary.  With  the  small  stipend  he  was  receiving 
this  would  involve  no  little  hardship,  but  Mr. 
Bickel  knew  only  one  road:  the  path  of  duty  as 
God  revealed  it  to  him.  The  salary  committee 
reconsidered  their  action,  decided  that  it  was  un- 
called for,  and  offered  no  further  objection  to  his 
missionary  journeys. 

The  little  group  of  believers  which  worshipped  in 
the  shack  on  Mary  Street  developed,  under  his 
earnest  ministry,  into  the  First  German  Baptist 
Church  of  Cincinnati,  properly  housed,  and  with 
an  influential  and  flourishing  congregation.  This 
church  became  a  Mother  of  Churches,  and  of 
Preachers.  From  its  early  membership  went  forth 
many  ministers  and  missionaries.  Several  branch 
churches,  or  mission  churches,  were  organized  dur- 


24  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

ing   Mr.    Bickers    stay.       "Ten   years    saw    five 
cliurclies  established/' 

Meanwhile  the  Civil  War  drew  on  apace.  Mr. 
Bickel  had  already  taken  an  active  part  in  helping 
fugitive  slaves  on  their  way  north  to  Canada,  the 
Promised  Land  of  the  oppressed  black  man,  as  an 
agent  of  the  "  Under-Ground  Kailroad."  When 
the  war  finally  broke  out  he  devoted  himself  to  the 
cause  of  the  North,  and  of  the  slave,  as  fully  as 
circumstances  permitted.  Was  it  not  his  zeal  for 
Union  and  Freedom  that  had  sent  him  into  exile 
from  the  Fatherland? 

Of  those  days  a  member  of  his  family  writes  as 
follows:  "When  war  was  declared  all  the  young 
men  of  the  church  volunteered.  When  they  went 
to  join  the  colours  it  was  with  the  understanding 
that  in  case  of  sickness  a  welcome  awaited  them  at 
our  home.  From  time  to  time  one  and  another 
claimed  this  hospitality,  and  became  our  guests  foj 
a  few  days.  The  only  case  of  serious  illness  was  that 
of  a  Christian  brother,  who  had  lain  uncared  for  in 
Andersonville  Prison  with  a  bad  form  of  typhoid 
fever.  When  he  was  delirious  only  a  strong  man 
could  control  him,  and  it  was  the  wish  of  the 
physician  in  charge  of  the  case  to  have  him  taken 
to  a  hospital.  The  poor  fellow  had  such  terrible 
recollections  of  the  prison  that  he  feared  even  a 
hospital  and  begged  to  be  allowed  to  remain  in 
his  pastor's  home.  Contrary  to  our  fears  the  Lord 
blessed  the  treatment  given.  He  completely  re- 
covered and  after  three  months  was  able  to  return 
to  his  duty.  For  many  years  he  was  one  of  the 
most  faithful  members  of  our  Cincinnati  church." 

Although  Mr.  Bickel  was  excused,  on  account  of 


A  GEEMAN  PATEIOT  25 

his  calling,  from  active  service,  lie  could  not  con- 
tent himself  to  bide  snugly  at  home  while  other 
young  men  were  bearing  the  hardships  and  perils 
of  war.  He  had  long  ago  become  a  naturalized 
American  citizen,  and  was  willing  to  fight  and  die 
for  the  principles  for  which  the  Kepublic  stood. 
Cincinnati,  being  a  border  city,  was  constantly 
threatened  by  the  southern  forces,  but  he  com- 
mitted his  little  family  to  the  keeping  of  God,  and 
marched  away  to  the  war. 

"While  your  father  was  away,"  Mrs.  Bickel 
afterward  related  to  her  children,  "I  was  for- 
tunate in  having  with  me  a  woman  who  had 
escaped  from  slavery,  and  had  come  to  me  begging 
I  should  give  her  a  home  till  she  could  get  farther 
north.  She  was  very  faithful,  and  at  night  would 
not  leave  me  and  the  children,  but  would  bring  a 
mat  and  lie  down  before  our  door.  None  of  us 
thought  of  undressing  at  night,  but  lay  down  to 
rest  with  our  clothes  on,  and  each  child  knew  which 
package  he  or  she  must  take  if  we  were  obliged  to 
flee  before  morning.  There  were  many  rebels  in 
the  neighbourhood.  The  house  in  which  we  lived, 
and  indeed  nearly  the  entire  street,  belonged  to 
George  Pendleton,  and  we  were  often  roused  from 
our  slumbers  by  horsemen  coming  to  bring  him 
information  of  the  proceedings  of  these  rebels. 
Their  plan  was  to  first  of  all  cut  off  the  water 
supply,  so  we  always  kept  our  rain-water  cistern 
filled.  We  used  all  necessary  precautions,  but  we 
were  thankful  when  matters  became  more  quiet, 
and  Father  could  return  to  his  church  and  family. '^ 

Mr.  Bickel  returned  from  the  war  with  an  affec- 
tion of  the  throat  which  practically  disabled  him 


26  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

for  public  service.  From  tlie  beginning  of  his  city 
missionary  life  lie  had  occasionally  found  time  to 
exercise  his  literary  talent,  and  now  he  turned  his 
energies  into  the  production  of  German  Christian 
literature.  Keligious  articles,  poems,  translations 
of  English  hymns,  flowed  from  his  pen.  His  first 
serious  venture,  as  a  Christian  publisher,  was  a 
Baptist  Young  People's  Pai3er,  and  a  Sunday- 
school  Hymnal.  This  undertaking,  which  was  at 
first  at  his  own  private  expense,  soon  developed 
into  the  German  Baptist  Publication  Society.  At 
the  request  of  the  German  Baptists  of  America  he 
became  president  of  the  Society,  and  editor  and 
publisher  of  the  various  periodicals  which  it  issued. 
The  Publication  House  was  established  in  Cleve- 
land, and  eventually,  in  1870  or  thereabout,  he 
found  it  necessary  to  remove  his  home  to  that  city. 
The  work  of  the  Society  developed  rapidly,  and 
soon  he  was  devoting  to  it  almost  his  whole  atten- 
tion. The  first  building,  erected  in  1871,  was  des- 
troyed by  fire,  but  was  soon  replaced  by  one 
larger  and  handsomer,  which  became  a  centre  of 
great  usefulness. 

Meanwhile,  in  Germany  Pastor  Oncken  was 
feeling  the  burden  of  increasing  years,  and  was 
looking  for  a  man  upon  whom  he  might  lay  the 
responsibilities  he  had  borne  for  half  a  century. 
In  1876  Mr.  Bickel — now  Dr.  Bickel,  having  re- 
ceived the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Deni- 
son  University — visited  Germany  and  had  an  inter- 
view with  Dr.  Oncken.  "  The  venerable  leader 
recognized  in  the  younger  man  from  America  one 
who,  by  personal  qualifications,  by  knowledge  of 
the  grace  of  God,  and  by  long  experience  in  a 


A  GEEMAN  PATEIOT  27 

similar  sphere,  was  peculiarly  fitted  to  carry  for- 
ward the  work  of  the  Baptist  Mission  in  Germany 
and  other  lands."  He  laid  the  matter  upon  his 
visitor's  heart,  and  to  Dr.  Bickel  his  words  were 
the  voice  of  God  calling  him  to  a  wider  field  of 
usefulness.  The  next  year,  with  the  assistance  of 
the  American  Baptist  Publication  Society,  he  re- 
turned to  Germany,  accompanied  by  his  family, 
henceforth  to  make  the  Fatherland  again  his  home. 
Thirty  years  before,  a  mere  stripling,  a  lonely  fugi- 
tive Jacob  with  naught  but  a  staff  in  his  hand,  he 
had  gone  to  be  a  sojourner  in  a  strange  land.  He 
returns,  having  "  become  two  bands,"  rich  in  wife 
and  children,  rich  also  in  the  knowledge  of  God, 
and  in  experience  of  Christian  life  and  work. 

During  those  thirty  years  a  new  Germany  had 
arisen.  The  dream  of  the  young  revolutionaries  of 
'48  had  in  part  been  fulfilled.  The  various  states 
had  been  federated  into  one  great  empire,  prosper- 
ous and  strong.  The  disabilities  of  the  peasantry 
had  been  removed.  German  democracy,  however, 
was  yet  only  a  distant  hope.  It  was  doubtless  with 
some  feeling  of  regret  that  Dr.  Bickel  exchanged 
the  free  institutions  of  the  West  for  the  cast-iron 
absolutism  of  the  new  empire.  Keligiously,  con- 
ditions had  not  improved.  In  the  State  Church 
spiritual  life  was  at  a  low  ebb.  The  universities 
were  hotbeds  of  infidelity.  The  preaching  of  the 
Gospel,  and  meetings  for  worship,  by  evangelical 
Christians,  if  not  actually  prohibited,  were  at  least 
often  interfered  with  and  interrupted  by  agents 
of  the  government. 

Dr.  Bickel  settled  in  Hamburg,  and  there  de- 
voted himself  to  the  two  lines  of  work  which  had 


28  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

occupied  Dr.  Oncken:  the  j)roduction  and  dissemi- 
nation of  Christian  literature,  and  the  training  up 
of  a  Christian  ministry.  The  German  Baptist 
Union  transferred  to  him  the  management  of  its 
publishing  business,  and  into  its  reorganization 
and  development  he  threw  himself  with  character- 
istic energy  and  determination.  The  business 
prospered  and  grew,  and  became  a  power  for  good, 
its  influence  extending  far  beyond  the  confines  of 
Germany,  among  the  German-speaking  populations 
of  the  adjoining  countries.  It  is  mainly  due  to  Dr. 
BickeFs  sagacity  and  enterprise  and  unremitting 
toil  that  the  Baptists  of  German}^  now  own  an 
admirable  Publication  House,  equipped  with  all 
modern  appliances,  in  the  city  of  Cassel,  in  Hessia, 
to  which  city  the  publishing  business  was  removed 
from  Hamburg;  and  here  Dr.  Bickel  passed  the 
last  years  of  his  life.  Here  he  carried  on  not  only 
the  normal  work  of  the  publication  department, 
including  the  issuing  of  various  religious  period- 
icals, hymnals  and  helpful  books,  but  also  that  of 
the  Tract  Society  and  of  Bible  distribution.  He 
performed  a  valuable  service  as  agent  of  the  Na- 
tional Bible  Society  of  Scotland,  and  by  the  col- 
porters  under  his  direction  nearly  two  million 
copies  of  the  Scriptures  were  distributed  among  the 
German-speaking  peoples  of  Europe,  many  of  these 
copies  being  placed  in  the  hands  of  socialists  and 
free-thinkers,  to  say  nothing  of  the  merely  nominal 
Christians  of  the  Established  Church.  There  were 
about  fifty  colporters  under  his  direction,  who 
travelled  far  and  wide  over  Central  Europe,  preach- 
ing the  Gospel  and  scattering  the  printed  word  of 
God  among  the  people.     Many  of  them  met  hos- 


A  GERMAN  PATRIOT  29 

tility,  abuse  and  violence.  Dr.  Bickel's  lionie  was 
their  Mecca.  There  they  found  sjTiipathy  and 
counsel  and  strength.  Gathered  ahout  his  table, 
or  at  his  fireside,  they  told  the  story  of  their 
journeys  in  Germany  and  Austria,  among  the 
Balkan  Mountains  or  on  Russian  steppes ;  and  their 
difficulties  and  trials,  their  labours  and  successes, 
were  the  theme  of  conversation  and  prayer.  As  a 
result  of  the  work  of  these  men  many  persons  were 
brought  to  a  new  life  in  Christ,  and  in  several  coun- 
tries Baptist  churches  were  established,  not  only 
among  German-speaking  peoples,  but  among  those 
of  other  languages. 

German  Baptists  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  also  to 
Dr.  Bickel  for  the  part  he  took  in  training  young 
men  for  the  Christian  ministry.  To  the  building 
up  and  development  of  the  Hamburg  Theological 
Seminary  he  gave  unstintingly  his  time  and 
strength.  In  his  mind  the  colportage  work  and  the 
Seminary  course  were  closely  connected.  From 
the  ranks  of  the  colporters  came  many  students 
into  the  school,  and  on  the  other  hand  the  work 
done  by  the  colporters  broke  up  the  ground  for  the 
evangelistic  and  pastoral  labours  of  the  seminary 
graduates.  The  Seminary  at  Hamburg,  the  Pub- 
lication House  at  Cassel — these  remain  as  sub- 
stantial memorials  of  thirty-six  years  of  faithful 
and  fruitful  labour  on  behalf  of  the  spiritual  re- 
demption of  the  Fatherland.  Dr.  Bickel  was  in- 
deed during  all  these  years  the  head  and  front  of 
Baptist  work  not  in  Germany  only  but  throughout 
Central  Europe. 

Dr.  Bickel  was  a  lover  of  children,  and  was  loved 
by  them.     He  gathered  them  about  him  in  the  Sun- 


30  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

day  scliool.  He  sent  out  from  his  presses  literatui*e 
suited  to  their  needs.  His  ^^  Lingvo glein/'  or 
^'Singing-Birdie/'  with  its  bright  words  and  mel- 
odies, became  a  favourite  in  all  the  Sunday  schools 
of  the  countries  speaking  the  German  tongue. 

Such,  told  all  too  imperfectly,  is  the  story  of  the 
life-work  of  Dr.  Philipp  Bickel,  the  father  of  our 
Cai)tain  Bickel.  He  was  a  man  of  great  heart,  of 
strong  faith,  of  ardent  love  of  truth  and  righteous- 
ness, of  wide  vision,  of  tireless  energy.  He  was  a 
great  German,  a  great  American,  a  true  patriot,  a 
faithful  Christian.  The  movement  for  popular 
freedom  and  national  reform  into  which  he  flung 
himself  in  his  fiery  youth  failed  of  its  purpose,  but 
he  was  privileged  to  labour  for  sixty  years  for  the 
highest  interests  of  his  fellow-countrymen,  in  the 
ISTew  World  and  in  the  Old.  It  cannot  be  doubted 
that  those  fundamental  principles  of  democracy,  so 
inseparable  from  Baptist  institutions,  so  vital  in 
the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament,  which  his 
whole  work  tended  to  spread  throughout  the  Fa- 
therland, will  eventually  have  a  place  in  the  creation 
of  a  modern  democratic  Germany.  How  great  have 
been  the  spiritual  results,  in  thousands  of  lives,  of 
those  sixty  years  of  faithful  service,  and  how  rich 
are  the  harvests  yet  to  be  reaped  from  the  seed  he 
has  sown,  only  God  can  know,  and  only  eternity  can 
reveal. 

When  the  writer  was  in  Germany  in  the  summer 
of  1907,  having  come  overland  from  Japan  on  his 
way  to  Canada,  he  had  the  great  honour  of  being 
the  guest  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Bickel,  in  their  delightful 
home  in  Cassel,  and  cherishes  the  memory  of  the 
fatherly  and  motherly  welcome  accorded  him,  and 


\ 


A.GEEMAN  PATEIOT  31 

of  the  loving  hospitality  he  enjoyed  as  a  friend  of 
the  dear  son  iii  far-away  Japan,  and  as  a  missionary 
of  the  Gosjjel.  "  Loving ''  is  distinctly  the  right 
adjective,  even  to  the  patriarchal  parting  embrace, 
given  in  the  warm-hearted  German  fashion.  It 
was  a  home  of  a  genuinely  Christian  atmosphere, 
w^here  dwelt  the  peace  of  God.  They  had  the  year 
before  celebrated  their  golden  wedding.  Their 
sons  and  daughters  had  grown  up  and  gone  forth 
to  lives  of  usefulness.  Dr.  Bickel,  though  already 
fourscore,  was  enjoying  a  hale  old  age,  the  bright 
quiet  evening  of  a  strenuous  life.  Tall  and  of  sub- 
stantial physique,  he  made  on  one  the  impression 
of  strength  and  vigour,  while  in  his  voice  and  face 
were  kindness,  goodness  and  peace.  Mrs.  Bickel, 
seven  years  her  husband's  junior,  although  more 
worn  and  frail  than  he,  was  beautiful  in  her  gentle 
refinement  and  spirituality.  To  be  their  guest  was 
better  than  to  sit  at  the  table  of  kings.  Their  home 
closely  adjoined  the  great  publishing  house  v/hich 
he  had  so  long  controlled,  but  the  active  manage- 
ment of  which  he  was  transferring  to  Herr  J.  G. 
Lehmann,  his  "  right  hand,''  who  was  to  him  as  a 
son  to  a  father.  Under  Herr  Lehmann's  kind  con- 
duct an  interesting  tour  was  made  of  the  various 
departments  of  the  Publication  House,  a  centre  of 
spiritual  light  for  wide  regions  of  Europe ;  and  also 
a  visit  to  places  of  chief  interest  in  the  city. 
Emperor  William  was  to  be  in  the  city  the  follow- 
ing day,  and  the  writer  was  urged  to  extend  his 
sojourn  and  have  a  glimpse  of  His  Majesty;  but 
companions  in  travel  awaited  his  return  to  Berlin, 
and  he  counted  it  a  sufficient  honour  to  have  sat  at 
meat  with  members  of  a  higher  than  earthly  no- 


32  CAPTAIN  BIOKEL 

bility.  In  their  comj>any  one  was  not  far  from 
Him  wlio  is  King  of  Idngs  and  Lord  of  lords. 

In  these  days,  when  the  flagrant  crimes  com- 
mitted against  nations  and  against  humanity  by 
some  elements  of  the  German  people  have  aroused 
the  indignation  of  the  whole  world,  Christian  and 
heathen,  it  is  pleasant  to  remember  the  godly  and 
honourable  friends  one  has  met  in  the  Fatherland, 
and  to  believe  that  "  somewhere  in  Germany  "  are 
many  sweet  and  lovable  souls,  who  after  the  war 
will  become  mediators  of  peace  and  amity  between 
the  German  nation  and  the  peoples  who  have  been 
compelled  to  count  it  an  enemy. 

The  following  year  Mrs.  Bickel  was  called  away 
to  the  heavenly  land ;  and  on  November  ninth,  1914, 
in  his  eighty-sixth  year.  Dr.  Bickel  passed  on  to  his 
reward,  full  of  years  and  honours.  Although  the 
growing  infirmities  of  age  compelled  him  during 
the  closing  years  of  life  to  withdraw  from  active 
service,  he  did  not  slacken  his  interest  in  all  that 
pertained  to  the  Kingdom  of  God.  His  intellectual 
faculties  remained  clear  to  the  end.  We  are  told 
that  during  these  quiet  evening  years  of  life  he 
devoted  himself  much  to  prayer,  till  in  the  gray  of 
a  November  morning  the  summons  came,  and  he 
went  his  way  to  the  heavenly  Fatherland,  out  of  the 
storm  of  war  which  was  already  desolating  the 
earth. 

We  cannot  close  this  sketch  of  the  life  of  Captain 
BickePs  father  better  than  with  words  which  the 
Captain  himself  wrote  in  honour  of  his  father^s 
memory : 

**  The  Smithy  is  empty.    The  tools  lie  idle.    The  long 


A  GERMAN  PATRIOT  33 

day  is  spent.  The  evening  has  come.  The  old  Smith 
has  passed  on  down  the  long  road  to  the  beautiful  fields 
by  the  still  waters,  on  through  the  Valley  of  Peace,  to 
the  Mountains  of  the  '  Promise  Fulfilled.'  It  was  of 
these  fields,  this  valley,  these  mountains,  that  he  so  often 
sang  to  the  children  who  gathered  at  the  Smithy  door  to 
see  the  sparks  fly  from  the  anvil. 

'*  But  there  is  no  sorrow  in  the  hearts  of  those  who 
saw  the  old  Smith  go.  His  work  was  done,  well  done, 
and  the  songs  of  hope  and  faith  and  love  remain  in  the 
hearts  of  those  who  heard  them,  to  cheer  them  on  their 
way  to  the  fields,  the  valley,  the  mountains  beyond. 

' '  Sixty  years  of  service,  active  service,  in  the  name  of 
the  Baptist  churches  of  the  United  States,  was  the  record 
of  the  old  Smith,  first  under  the  Home,  then  under  the 
Foreign  Society,  a  record  of  a  strenuous  life,  a  life  of 
large  vision.  A  man  of  iron  will  and  high  ideals,  a  poet 
and  h^nnn-writer  of  no  mean  merit,  honoured  by  one  in- 
stitution of  learning  because  of  his  *  fearless  advocacy  of 
righteousness,'  by  another  for  his  literary  attainments, 
his  legacy  to  his  children  was  this, — that  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  was  in  him.  To  the  writer's  sadly  human  heart, 
however,  the  most  helpful  remembrance  of  the  old  Smith 
is  this,  that  old  and  young,  strong  and  weak,  the  man  of 
affairs,  the  official,  the  student,  the  mechanic,  the 
labourer,  the  little  child,  each  and  all  said,  *The  Old 
Blacksmith  is  my  Friend ! '  " 

As  our  story  proceeds  it  will  be  seen  that  Captain 
Biekel,  in  many  of  his  lines  of  Christian  activity, 
followed  in  his  father's  footstejjs,  but  beyond  that 
he  was  the  true  son  of  his  father  in  his  fearless 
devotion  to  duty,  his  intellectual  and  moral 
strength  and  energy,  his  ability  to  bring  things  to 
pass,  and  most  of  all  in  this,  that  he  won  the  con- 
fidence, admiration  and  love  of  people  of  all  ages 


U  CAPTAII>f  BICKEL 

and  of  every  condition  of  life,  Japanese  and  for- 
eigner, missionary  and  sailor,  heathen  and  Chris- 
tian. Literally,  throughout  his  wide  Island  parish, 
and  wherever  else  his  duty  took  him,  he  was 
recognized  as  friend  by  "  old  and  young,  strong 
and  weak,  the  man  of  affairs,  the  ofdcial,  the  stu- 
dent, the  mechanic,  the  labourer  and  the  little 
chUd," 


n 

THE  MAKING  OF  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

ON  the  twenty-first  of  September,  in  the  year 
of  grace  1866,  in  the  humble  but  happy 
home  of  a  city  missionary  in  Cincinnati, 
was  born  the  hero  of  this  story.  It  is  recorded  as 
a  matter  of  interest  in  the  family  annals  that  on 
the  self-same  day  the  head  of  the  household  was 
honoured  by  appointment  to  the  editorship  of  the 
religious  publications  issued  by  the  German  Bap- 
tist churches  of  the  United  States.  Luke,  as  the 
newcomer  was  named,  was  born  an  American,  his 
German-born  father  having  long  since  taken  out  his 
naturalization  papers ;  but  in  blood  he  was  English- 
American  on  his  mother^s  side,  and  German  on  his 
father's. 

Already  four  children  had  come  to  bless  the 
Bickel  home,  and  later  came  four  others,  Luke 
standing  half-way  down  the  family  line.  His  birth 
fell  at  an  auspicious  time.  The  Civil  War  was 
over.  Pastor  Bickel  had  been  welcomed  back  from 
army  service  by  his  family  and  his  church.  He 
had  built  him  a  house  on  one  of  the  hills  beside  the 
city,  and  in  the  pure  air  of  those  breezy  heights, 
and  in  the  warm  atmosphere  of  a  home  where  love 
reigned,  the  baby  boy  thrived  finely. 

Early  in  his  second  year,  however,  he  suddenly 

35 


3G  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

fell  ill,  and  so  seriously  that  the  Christian  doctor 
who  had  been  called  to  prescribe  for  hiin  felt  com- 
pelled to  prepare  the  parents  to  part  with  their 
child.  "Would  you  be  willing,  Mrs.  Bickel,"  he 
said,  "to  return  the  babe  to  the  keeping  of  Him 
who  has  lent  him  to  you?  "  The  mother  could  only 
rei)ly  through  her  tears,  "  Oh,  if  he  might  but  be 
spared  to  me  yet  another  year !  "  On  the  same  day, 
to  the  doctor's  surprise,  the  disease  took  a  favour- 
able turn,  and  the  parents  knew  that  their  prayers 
had  been  answered.  A  year  passed,  and  again  Luke 
fell  dangerously  ill.  The  doctor  repeated  his  ques- 
tion of  the  previous  year.  "  Last  year,"  replied  the 
mother,  "  God  heard  my  petition  and  has  permitted 
me  to  keep  the  child  until  now.  He  will  again  hear 
me,  and  still  leave  the  child  in  my  arms."  Again 
her  desire  was  granted,  and  the  disease  was  over- 
come. For  some  years,  however,  Luke  had  but  in- 
different health,  being  nervous  and  peevish,  without 
the  good  spirits  natural  to  childhood;  and  his 
mother  sometimes  feared  that  she  had  been  too 
importunate  in  her  desire  and  prayer  that  his  life 
might  be  spared. 

As  time  passed  on,  however,  he  grew  into  normal 
health.  His  sister  writes  that  as  a  child  he  was  of 
a  quiet  and  timid  disposition,  affectionate  and 
witty.  He  was  of  a  religious  bent,  with  a  notice- 
able love  for  prayer.  By  this  time  the  family  had 
removed  to  Cleveland,  in  order  that  Mr.  Bickel 
might  be  in  closer  touch  with  the  Publication 
House.  Mrs.  Bickel  had  learned  to  love  the  life 
of  a  pastor's  wife,  and  to  enjoy  her  own  share  in 
city  missionary  work.  She  had  been  as  an  angel 
of  God  in  homes  of  sorrow  and  sickness.    When 


THE  MAKING  OF  CAPTAIN  BICKEL         37 

she  reluctantly  parted  with  her  peoj)le — for  they 
had  become  her  peoj^le  as  well  as  her  hiisband^s — 
she  carried  with  her  the  love  of  many  hearts. 

If  Luke  Bickel  owed  much  to  his  father  in  the 
intellectual  gifts  and  strong  traits  of  character 
which  he  inherited  from  him,  and  in  the  fine  ex- 
ample of  noble  manhood  and  Christian  devotion 
which  he  saw  in  him,  he  owed  his  mother  an  equal 
debt.  Perhaps  he  would  have  said  that  her  share 
in  what  he  became,  and  in  what  he  achieved,  should 
have  an  even  higher  valuation.  He  tells  us  that 
while  his  father's  fearless  advocacy  of  every  good 
cause,  and  uncompromising  hostility  to  every  evil, 
won  him  many  enemies,  his  mother's  gentleness  and 
sweetness  of  disijosition  made  every  one  her  friend. 

One  or  two  instances  of  her  kind  thoughtfulness 
for  others  have  been  preserved  to  us.  Before  her 
marriage,  while  a  teacher  in  Rochester,  it  was  her 
custom  every  morning,  before  meeting  her  classes, 
to  go  to  the  home  of  a  poor  bed-ridden  negro 
woman  and  minister  to  her  needs,  aiding  her  with 
her  toilet,  tidying  up  her  room,  and  making  her 
comfortable  for  the  day.  Some  years  later,  when 
she  was  a  mother  with  young  children  about  her,  it 
happened  that  a  woman  of  the  neighbourhood  died, 
leaving  a  babe  of  the  same  age  as  Mrs.  BickeFs 
youngest.  On  hearing  of  this  she  had  the  child 
brought  to  her  own  home,  and  nourished  it  at  her 
own  breast,  with  her  own  child,  until  it  was  mature 
enough  to  take  solid  food. 

"  Our  sweet,  loving,  unselfish,  jmtient  little 
mother  was  our  Friend.  To  see  her  face  sad  was 
our  sufficient  punishment.  Friends  used  to  say 
that  we  worshipped  our  mother.    She  had  a  great 


38  CAPTAIN  BTCKEL 

love  for  children,  and  always  stood  for  their  rights. 
She  never  punished  us  when  excited.  Often  she 
would  tallv  matters  over  with  us,  and  then  pray 
with  us,  and  then  the  corporal  punishment  would 
follow.  We  realized  that  our  punishment  was 
deserved  and  wise.  Sister  Penelope,  a  great  strong 
girl,  would  often  come  to  Mother  of  her  own  accord, 
and  ask  to  be  punished.'' 

Mrs.  Bickel  was  always  the  companion  of  her 
children,  retaining  her  youthful  spirit,  keeping 
abreast  of  the  times,  hospitable  to  new  ideas,  and 
thus  able  to  enter  into  the  thought  and  experience 
of  her  sons  and  daughters  as  they  grew  to  man- 
hood and  womanhood.  When  they  had  flitted  from 
the  home  nest  she  still  kept  in  close  touch  with 
them  through  her  pen.  "  Her  letters  were  a  great 
inspiration  to  our  lives.  They  seemed  like  mes- 
sages from  heaven,  aiding  us  in  the  trials  and 
temptations  of  life  to  overcome,  and  to  live  accord- 
ing to  our  Master's  will." 

In  Captain  BickeFs  consummate  courtesy  and 
refinement,  the  bloom  of  which  was  not  marred  by 
the  years  he  spent  among  rough  seafaring  men ;  in 
his  delicacy  of  feeling  and  readiness  of  sympathy; 
in  his  forwardness  to  help ;  in  his  unfailing  patience 
and  humility,  and  in  an  almost  feminine  gentleness 
and  tenderness  toward  all  the  weak  and  distressed, 
we  see  part  of  his  inheritance  from  his  mother,  and 
one  result  of  the  lessons  in  living  which  he  learned 
in  boyhood  at  her  side. 

The  secular  education  of  the  Bickel  children  was 
not  neglected.  Full  advantage  was  taken  of  the 
public  school  systems  of  America  and  Germany; 
but  in  addition  to  this  Dr.  Bickel  gave  his  personal 


THE  MAKING  OF  CAPTATISr  BICKEL         39 

attention  to  tlie  training  of  eacli  of  his  cliildren, 
taking  into  account  the  mental  peculiarities  and 
proclivities  of  each  one. 

"Father  did  all  in  his  power  to  give  us  a  good 
education,  at  the  same  time  considering  the  natural 
inclination  of  each  child.  Father  also  had  the  idea 
that  each  child  should  learn  to  do  for  himself,  and 
so  soon  as  suf6.ciently  mature  should  go  out  into  the 
world  and  make  his  own  way.  ^Always  ask  the 
Lord,'  he  wbuld  say  to  us, '  where  He  wishes  you  to 
go,  and  then  follow.'  This  advice  he  repeated 
again  and  again,  and  the  consequence  is  that  later 
vears  found  us  scattered  all  over  the  earth. 
Father's  time  was  fully  occupied  with  his  mission 
work,  and  we  children  while  at  home  all  had  our 
share  in  the  household  tasks,  and  were  too  busy 
and  happy  to  crave  outside  worldly  amusements. 
Nearly  every  day  brought  us  new  guests  and  vis- 
itors, and  if  they  failed  to  come  we  enjoyed  the 
novelty  of  having  our  parents  and  our  home  to  our- 
selves." 

What  gift  could  a  good  Fairy  bestow  on  a  child 
greater  than  to  grow  up  in  just  such  a  simple,  hum- 
ble, hospitable,  homely  little  home,  the  daily  atmos- 
phere of  which  was  cheerfulness,  seriousness,  godli- 
ness and  love? 

In  1878,  when  Luke  was  twelve  years  of  age,  the 
family  migrated  back  to  Germany,  to  make  their 
home  first  at  Hamburg  and  later  at  Cassel.  Of  the 
nine  children  born  to  the  Bickels,  three  had  died 
in  early  childhood.  Of  the  six  remaining,  Karl, 
the  eldest,  was  just  out  of  his  teens,  while  Beatrice, 
the  youngest,  was  but  a  baby.  The  family  home  life 
was  American  rather  than  German.     There  was 


40  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

always  an  American  flag  in  the  house.  Meals  were 
cooked  and  served  in  the  American  style.  German 
and  English  were  both  in  common  use  in  the  family 
intercourse.  While  in  America  special  attention 
had  been  paid  to  the  German,  now  in  Germany, 
stress  was  laid  on  the  English.  In  whichever  lan- 
guage any  one  of  the  children  happened  to  be  ad- 
dressed by  his  parents  he  was  expected  to  reply  in 
the  same  language.  Luke  thus  began  life  with  two 
native  tongues,  and  to  these  he  later  added  Dutch, 
French,  Si^anish,  and  of  course  Japanese,  as  well 
as  gaining  some  knowledge  of  several  other  lan- 
guages. 

We  are  told  that  as  a  child  Luke  was  a  great 
lover  of  neatness  and  order,  carrying  this  passion 
sometimes  to  excess.  It  distressed  him  if  there 
was  any  untidiness  or  confusion  in  the  house. 
"  With  our  many  guests  it  was  impossible  to  have 
things  always  in  their  proper  places,  as  we  were 
frequently  obliged  to  give  up  our  own  rooms  to 
visitors.  Luke's  extreme  fastidiousness  annoyed 
his  sisters,  and  one  day  a  motto,  intended  for  his 
edification,  was  found  hanging  in  the  dining-room : 


« 


Mensch  Argere  Dich  NichV 


It  only  needed  a  year  of  sailor  life,  his  sister  tells 
us,  to  cure  him  of  the  excess  of  this  trait,  but  his 
innate  love  of  order  remained  and  stood  him  in 
good  stead  on  the  FuJcuin  Maru^  which  owed  not  a 
little  of  her  charm  to  the  order  and  neatness  which 
always  reigned  in  her. 

Luke  had  been  for  some  years  a  pupil  in  Stirling 
School,  Cleveland,  and  did  not  find  it  easy  to  ac- 
custom himself  to  the  quite  different  methods  of 


THE  MAKING  OF  CAPTAIN  BICKEL         41 

instruction  followed  in  Germany.  For  this  reason 
he  failed  to  find  much  pleasure  in,  his  school  life  in 
that  country.  He  made  good  progress,  however, 
and  while  not  a  bookworm  always  stood  high  in  his 
classes.  His  favourite  studies  were  geography, 
music,  and  the  Bible.  On  being  graduated  from 
the  Keformed  Church  Academy,  Hamburg,  in  1880, 
he  was  sent  to  Soest,  where  he  took  three  years' 
collegiate  work,  after  which  he  silent  a  year  at 
Wandsbeck  Gymnasium. 

Meanwhile  an  important  part  of  his  education 
was  that  which  he  wa«  receiving  at  home.  While 
Dr.  Bickel  was  a  Home  Missionary  in  a  very  wide 
sense,  his  influence  extending  all  over  Central 
Europe,  Mrs.  Bickel  was  noted  for  her  interest  in 
missions  to  the  heathen.  Both  with  equal  zeal 
laboured  together  for  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Christ,  and  the  home  atmosphere  was  warmly 
Christian  and  missionary.  From  such  a  home  one 
may  expect  missionaries  to  go  forth,  and  men  and 
women  with  a  wide  outlook  and  an  intelligent  in- 
terest in  human  affairs.  The  missionary  move- 
ment is,  by  the  way,  one  of  the  most  effective  educa- 
tors of  modern  times. 

Captain  Bickel  sometimes  expressed  regret  that 
circumstances  had  prevented  his  taking  a  course  of 
study  in  theology  before  beginning  his  missionary 
work ;  but  it  would  be  well  if  all  who  come  to  the 
foreign  field  fresh  from  the  seminary  class-room 
brought  as  clear  and  spiritual  views  of  Christian 
truth,  and  as  marked  an  ability  to  present  that 
truth  in  an  effective  manner.  In  his  case  the  mis- 
sionary home  had  fulfilled  the  function  of  the  the- 
ological school.     At  his  father's  table,  at  the  family 


42  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

hearth,  he  listened  to  discussions  of  the  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  religion,  and  of  the  application 
of  those  doctrines  to  Christian  work.  To  that  home 
came  men  from  many  lands,  men  in  the  true 
apostolic  succession,  telling  what  things  God  had 
wrought  by  their  hands  among  the  nations.  A  boy 
graduated  from  such  a  home  hardly  needs  a  semi- 
nary course.  It  was  no  doubt  due,  moreover,  in 
part  at  least,  to  what  Luke  Bickel  learned  con- 
cerning the  spirit  and  method  of  missionary  work 
in  his  own  home,  from  the  lips  of  his  parents,  and 
of  many  other  experienced  Christian  workers,  that 
he  was  afterward  able  to  plan  his  own  work  so 
wisely,  and  to  carry  it  out  so  efficiently,  making 
few  of  the  mistakes  which  mark  and  mar  the  early 
years  of  the  average  missionary. 

While  the  home  influences  were  thus  supremely 
helpful,  it  was  otherwise  with  some  of  those  which 
touched  his  life  in  the  world  outside.  The  agnosti- 
cism and  materialistic  philosophy  which  had 
largely  replaced  religion  in  the  German  Empire 
met  him  in  his  school  life.  Among  the  teachers  in 
the  Academy  was  an  atheist  who  succeeded  in  in- 
oculating Luke  with  his  skeptical  views,  greatly  to 
the  concern  of  his  parents.  Though  religiously 
inclined  from  a  child  he  had  not  yet  committed 
himself  to  the  Christian  life.  In  her  urgent  desire 
for  the  spiritual  welfare  of  her  boy  his  mother  not 
only  herself  made  the  matter  a  subject  of  prayer, 
but  addressed  a  letter  to  the  American  Baptist 
Women's  Missionaiy  Society,  which  was  about  to 
hold  its  annual  assembly,  begging  that  special 
prayer  be  made  at  that  meeting  for  the  conversion 
of  her  son.    Notice  the  sequel.     At  the  very  time 


THE  MAKING  OF  CAPTAIN  BICKEL         43 

that  the  Women's  Missionary  Conference  was  in 
session  on  tKe  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  Luke  was 
led  into  a  personal  experience  of  the  saving  grace 
of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  by  a  devout  simple-minded 
city  mission  worker  named  Wendolf,  and  forthwith 
confessing  his  new  found  faith  and  being  baptized, 
became  a  member  of  the  Hamburg  Baptist  Church. 
At  once  he  began  to  manifest  a  desire  to  have  others 
share  the  blessing  he  had  found,  showing  a  lively 
interest,  for  example,  in  the  work  of  the  mission 
to  seamen,  and  in  the  sailors'  home,  the  "  Strangers' 
Rest,"  in  the  city.  It  may  here  be  mentioned  that 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Bickel  had  the  joy  of  seeing  all  their 
children  converted,  and  brought  into  the  fellowship 
of  the  German  Baptist  Church,  while  they  were 
yet  young. 

Luke's  interest  in  the  Hamburg  Mission  to  Sea- 
men may  have  been  partly  due  to  his  own  longing 
for  a  life  on  the  salt  water.  Although  born  in  an 
inland  city,  and  without  a  sight  of  the  ocean  until 
his  twelfth  year,  he  had  early  conceived  a  passion 
for  the  sea.  His  father  used  to  smilingly  say  that 
it  was  "  all  Grandma  Clarke's  fault."  She  had  fired 
the  boy's  heart  with  the  tale  of  Commodore  Perry 
and  his  famous  Expedition  to  the  coasts  of  the 
Far  East,  beyond  the  wide  Pacific,  and  had  taken 
him  so  often  to  the  Perry  Monument  in  Cleveland 
that  it  had  made  a  profound  impression  on  him. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  neither  of  them  dreamed  that 
some  day  he  would  enter  the  door  which  Perry  had 
thrown  open,  and  spend  his  life  for  the  people 
whom  Perry  had  introduced  to  the  modern  world. 

Luke's  first  ocean  voyage,  from  New  York  to 
Hamburg,  might  well  have  dampened  his  boyish 


44  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

ardour  for  a  sailor^s  life.  He  suffered  much  from 
seasickness.  Indeed,  lie  seems  to  have  been  con- 
stitutionally susceptible  to  that  unpleasant  malady, 
and  even  after  becoming  a  professional  seaman  was 
frequently  troubled  in  this  way.  At  Hamburg, 
Germany's  great  port,  he  was  in  touch  with  the 
sea  and  shipping.  Great  ocean  liners  came  to  the 
city  quays  from  many  lands  beyond  the  Seven  Seas. 
He  played  at  sailoring  by  carving  out  toy  vessels, 
and  by  going  voyaging  in  a  rowboat,  with  his 
younger  sister  for  mate,  upon  the  placid  Alster. 

When  Luke  first  expressed  a  desire  to  follow  the 
sea  his  father,  unwilling  for  him  to  meet  the  hard- 
ships of  a  sailor's  life,  considering  also  no  doubt 
the  great  temptations  incident  to  it,  and  the  wrecks 
of  more  than  ships  which  strew  its  course,  en- 
deavoured to  turn  him  from  his  purpose.  Thinking 
to  wean  him  from  the  salt  water  he  sent  him  off 
to  school  in  an  inland  city.  This,  however,  proved 
of  no  avail.  Whenever  a  holiday  permitted  his 
first  thought  was  to  get  to,  and  on,  the  nearest 
water.  "  If  I  have  no  boat,  I  take  a  tub,"  he  used 
to  say.  On  one  occasion  a  woman  with  two  chil- 
dren was  very  anxious  to  get  across  a  certain  sheet 
of  water,  but  the  boatman  refused  to  ferry  her  over 
on  account  of  the  tempestuous  weather.  Luke  vol- 
unteered his  services  and  rowed  them  safely 
across — an  incident  prophetic  of  the  life  of  ready 
and  fearless  service  for  which  God  was  preparing 
him. 

Dr.  Bickel  was  not  yet  able  to  reconcile  himself 
to  having  his  boy  become  a  sailor,  and  made  one 
more  attempt  to  anchor  him  to  the  land.  He  pro- 
posed to  him  to  take  a  medical  course,  and  wrote  to 


THE  MAKING  OP  CAPTAIN  BICKEL         45 

a  doctor  who  happened  to  be  a  friend  of  the  family, 
asking  his  advice  in  the  matter.  The  reply  was 
for  some  reason  delayed,  and  meanwhile  Luke  in- 
formed his  parents  that  he  could  only  take  up 
medical  studies  on  the  condition  that  when  they 
were  completed  he  might  become  a  ship's  doctor. 
His  father,  finding  that  he  was  hopelessly  in  love 
with  the  sea,  withdrew  his  opposition  and  had  him 
apprenticed,  for  a  term  of  four  years,  on  an  English 
merchant  sailing  ship.  He  was  now  in  his  eight- 
eenth year,  six  feet  in  height,  a  fine  strapping 
young  fellow.  When  he  made  his  first  home  visit 
after  a  year  at  sea  it  was  evident  that  he  had  not 
mistaken  his  calling,  and  that  physically  and 
spiritually  the  sailor  life  was  agreeing  with  him. 
He  came  back  as  a  happy  Christian  seaman.  "  He 
had  found  his  element." 

His  voyages  during  these  four  years,  following 
"  the  trail  of  the  deep  blue,"  took  him  far  afield, 
to  the  west  coast  of  South  America,  to  Australia, 
and  to  Africa,  and  their  incidents  would  make  a 
fascinating  tale  of  the  sea  if  we  could  gather  them 
together.  It  is  worth  recording  that  the  voyages 
Were  made  under  sail,  some  of  them  in  the  famous 
clipper  ships,  the  Ships  of  Tarshish  of  the  day,  and 
were  far  more  interesting  and  eventful  than  if  made 
under  steam,  in  the  prosaic  modern  fashion.  He 
was  literally  a  sailor,  and  thus  his  sea  voyages 
were  an  especially  good  preparation  for  captaining 
the  FuJcuin  Maru. 

Every  voyage  he  went  gave  him  an  opportunity 
to  save  a  human  life,  an  opportunity  which  his 
courage,  strength  and  swiftness  in  action  enabled 
him  to  seize.     On  one  occasion  a  sailor  had  thrown 


46  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

s 

himself  into  tlie  sea  intending  to  commit  suicide. 
Bickel  instantly  leaped  after  him,  and  overcoming 
his  resistance  by  sheer  force  succeeded  in  rescuing 
him.  The  would-be  suicide  repaid  him  with  curses, 
on  which  the  other  sailors  would  have  thrown  the 
man  overboard  again  had  not  Bickel  intervened. 

During  these  years,  and  during  all  the  years  of 
his  seafaring  life,  his  Christian  conduct  was  an 
example  to  all  his  shipmates.  His  evident  sin- 
cerity, and  his  manly  qualities  and  friendly  ways, 
made  him  liked  and  respected  by  all,  even  the 
roughest  sailors  of  the  forecastle,  and  they  never 
made  a  mock  of  his  religion.  On  one  occasion, 
while  an  apprentice,  when  he  had  been  sent  aloft, 
a  number  of  the  sailors  were  gathered  on  deck 
talking  together,  and  spicing  their  conversation 
with  lewd  jokes,  and  vile  language.  When  they 
saw  Bickel  coming  down  they  checked  each  other, 
saying,  "  Hush !  Don't  use  such  talk  now.  Here 
comes  Bickel,  and  he's  a  Christian." 

He  held  fast  everywhere  the  principles  of  total 
abstinence  in  which  he  had  been  trained.  Dining 
one  day  in  a  restaurant  in  Valparaiso,  a  Spanish 
gentleman  present,  wishing  to  show  him  friendli- 
ness, had  the  waiter  bring  him  a  bottle  of  wine. 
Bickel  thanked  the  gentleman  for  his  kind  inten- 
tion, but  pointed  to  the  blue  ribbon  in  his  button- 
hole. The  bottle  was  ordered  removed  and  a  basket 
of  fine  frnit  set  in  its  place. 

At  the  end  of  his  four  years'  apprenticeship,  of 
all  the  ship's  company  with  which  he  had  sailed  on 
his  maiden  voyage  himself  and  the  ship's  dog  were 
all  that  remained  on  board. 

Our  young  seaman  rose  steadily  and  rapidly  in 


THE  MAKING  OF  CAPTAIN  BICKEL         47 

his  cliosen  calling.  He  duly  passed  his  officer's 
examination,  and  by  the  time  he  was  twenty-eight 
had  attained  the  rank  of  captain,  holding,  though 
an  American,  a  British  Board  of  Trade  certificate 
as  Master  Mariner.  Sometimes  in  after  years, 
when  storm  or  calm  compelled  the  Little  White 
Ship  to  lie  at  anchor,  giving  her  Captain  some 
hours  of  unwelcome  leisure,  he  would  beguile  the 
time,  as  he  paced  with  the  writer  the  vessel's  deck, 
with  "  sailors'  yarns  "  of  the  days  when  he  sailed 
the  Seven  Seas,  tales  of  doings  in  the  forecastle, 
of  visits  to  strange  lands  and  foreign  cities,  of 
adventures  on  the  Pacific  and  perils  on  the  At- 
lantic, of  the  ways  of  seamen  ashore  and  afloat. 
Mightily  entertaining,  and  with  a  spiritual  tonic, 
were  these  tales,  seasoned  with  salt  of  humour  and 
grace,  told  to  the  music  of  idly  flapping  sails  or  of 
dashing  waves,  and  full  of  a  love  for  the  wide  sea 
with  its  far  horizons,  its  mighty  throb,  its  wonder 
and  majesty  and  mystery;  for  though  not  himself 
a  frequent  maker  of  verse  he  had  something  of  a 
poet's  vision  of  the  beauty  of  the  world. 

These  ten  years  of  sailor  life  had  much  to  do 
with  the  making  of  Captain  Bickel.  He  not  only 
gained  that  expert  knowledge  of  navigation  which 
his  work  in  the  Inland  Sea  demanded,  but  a  body 
inured  to  hardship  and  fatigue.  His  acquaintance 
with  many  lands  and  association  with  all  kinds  of 
people  quickened  in  him  a  cosmopolitan  spirit, 
which  recognized  the  human  worth  of  men  of  every 
race  and  condition.  Out  on  the  lonely  sea,  more- 
over, he  became  better  acquainted  with  Him  who 
holds  the  winds  in  His  fist,  the  sea  in  the  hollow 
of  His  hand,  and  passed  through  spiritual  experi- 


48  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

ences  wliicli  fitted  him  for  something  higher  than 
mere  sailoring,  when  the  time  should  come. 

Meanwhile,  a  new  interest  came  into  his  life, 
which  was  to  yield  a  very  important  jDart  of  his 
equipment  for  his  unique  mission.  From  his  ocean 
voyages  he  ever  returned  to  English  ports,  and  it 
was  in  England  he  found  the  woman  who  was  to 
make  the  Fukum  Maru  a  home,  no  matter  by  what 
strange  shore  it  might  anchor,  and  to  do  much  to 
create  of  it  a  floating  Bethel,  where  men  were 
conscious  of  the  presence  of  God.  Annie  Burgess 
was  born  in  Norwich,  a  town  whose  name  is  a  house- 
hold word  with  all  English-speaking  children  who 
have  not  been  defrauded  of  their  rights  in  the 
nursery  poems  of  Mother  Goose.  In  London,  in 
1892,  she  first  met  Captain  Bickel.  He  was  then 
Second  Officer  on  the  S.  S.  Norse  King,  running 
between  Montreal  and  London,  and  had  added  to 
his  seafaring  adventures  some  remarkable  experi- 
ences in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  off  the  Magda- 
lene Islands,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Belle  Isle  Strait. 
The  meeting  occurred  at  the  home  of  a  mutual 
friend  and  in  the  immediate,  instinctive  way  in 
which  such  things  happen  they  knew  from  the  first 
that  God  meant  them  for  each  other.  Our  Captain, 
decisive  and  prompt  in  all  his  doings,  was  no 
laggard  in  love,  and  lost  no  time  in  wooing  and 
winning  the  woman  he  felt  God  had  chosen  for  him. 
The  marriage  took  place  in  1893,  and  the  new  home 
was  established  in  the  great  city. 

It  was  a  lonely  home,  however,  for  the  young 
wife,  who  could  only  enjoy  her  husband's  society 
during  the  brief  days  his  ship  was  at  its  home  port, 
and  it  was  a  great  joy  to  her  when  he  decided  to 


THE  MAKING  OF  CAPTAIN  BIOKEL         49 

remain  witli  her  over  one  voyage,  and  take  his 
examinations  for  master  mariner.     In  tkese  ex- 
aminations he  was  successful,  and  now  stood,  in 
rank,  at  the  top  of  his  chosen  profession.     For  his 
wife's  sake,  however,  and  perhaps  also  that  he 
might  enjoy  more  frequently  that  home  life  to 
which  he  had  been  so  long  a  stranger,  he  discon- 
tinued his  long  voyages  to  lands  over  sea,  content- 
ing himself  with  coasting  trips  around  the  British 
Islands.     Even  so  the  young  couple  could  enjoy 
each  other's  society  only  in  homeopathic  doses,  and 
when  their  first  child,  Philip,  was  born  Captain 
Bickel  yielded  to  his  wife's  persuasions  to  seek 
employment  on  shore,  for  a  time  at  least. 

A  kind  Providence  seconded  Mrs.  Bickel's  desire. 
Some  of  the  directors  of  the  London  Baptist  Pub- 
lication Society,  who  happened  to  be  intimate 
friends  of  Dr.  Philipp  Bickel  and  knew  of  his  great 
success  in  promoting  the  work  of  the  German  Bap- 
tist Publishing  Concern,  invited  the  young  captain 
to  an  interview,  and  as  a  result  of  the  interview 
asked  him  to  assume  control  of  the  Society's  busi- 
ness. The  business  was  at  that  time  in  an  almost 
moribund  condition,  and  was  carried  on  in  a  small 
oface  on  a  back  street  in  a  very  unfavourable  loca- 
tion. The  Captain  accepted  the  task  and  deter- 
mined to  put  the  business  on  a  better  footing  or  die 
in  the  attempt.  In  its  reorganization  and  rejuve- 
nation he  discovered  marked  administrative  and 
executive  ability.  The  quality  of  the  output  was 
improved,  and  its  quantity  greatly  increased,  and 
within  a  year  the  business  had  so  developed  that  the 
directors  moved  it  into  better  quarters  in  a  business 
part  of  the  city,  on  Paternoster  Eoad.     Here  it 


50  CAPTAIN  BIOKEL 

continued  to  thrive  and  prosper,  Captain  Bickel 
devoting  himself  to  it  so  earnestly  and  unremit- 
tingly, indeed,  that  there  was  danger  of  his  break- 
ing down  his  health,  the  free  life  of  a  sailor  having 
unfitted  him  for  the  confinement  of  an  of8.ce.  At 
the  close  of  four  years  the  London  Baptist  Publica- 
tion House  was  financially  sound  and  strong,  was 
having  a  large  yearly  turn-over,  and  was  doing  a 
work  of  great  value  to  the  Baptist  churches  of 
Britain. 

'Not  content  with  the  Christian  service  he  was 
rendering  through  the  Publication  House,  he  in- 
terested himself  in  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  great 
metropolis,  engaging,  like  his  father,  in  Sunday- 
school  work,  for  he,  too,  was  a  lover  of  children. 

He  was  in  the  midst  of  these  fruitful  labours 
when  a  call  came  to  him  to  undertake  a  new  work, 
in  a  strange  land,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  planet ; 
a  call  to  leave  his  cozy  English  home,  newly  estab- 
lished after  many  years  of  homelessness  on  the 
lonely  sea,  and  to  become  again  a  wanderer  on  the 
face  of  the  waters.  A  man  was  wanted  to  sail  a 
Gospel  Ship  and  carry  on  a  Gospel  Mission  among 
the  neglected  Islanders  of  Japan.  A  ship-owner 
of  Glasgow  had  made  an  offer  of  a  vessel,  and  a 
Missionary  Society  was  looking  for  a  missionary- 
mariner.  Some  leading  members  of  that  society 
had  come  to  Europe  on  this  quest,  and  had  visited 
Dr.  Bickel  and  his  Publication  House  and  Seminary 
at  Hamburg.  They  told  of  the  needs  of  the  Island- 
ers and  of  the  opportunity  now  offered  to  meet 
those  needs.  "  But  all  avails  nothing,'^  they  said, 
"  unless  we  can  find  a  man.  May  not  your  son  be 
he?  "     "  It  would  not  be  becoming  in  me  to  recom- 


THE  MAKmG  OF  CAPTAIN  BICKEL         51 

mend  my  own  son,"  replied  Dr.  Bickel,  "  but  your 
journey  takes  you  to  London.  There  you  can  meet 
and  talk  with  liim."  Accordingly  they  crossed  the 
Channel,  and  arriving  in  London  found  the  Captain 
busy  with  his  duties  at  the  Eooms  on  Paternoster 
Road.  Their  proposal  that  he  should  become  mis- 
sionary to  the  Japanese  Islanders  at  first  amazed 
him,  he  never  having  taken  a  course  in  theology, 
but  finally  he  recognized  in  their  request  the  voice 
of  Him  who  appeared  to  Isaiah  in  the  temple: 
"  Whom  shall  we  send?  and  who  will  go  for  us?  " 
and  humbly  replied,  "  Here  am  I,  send  me." 

His  love  for  the  sea,  and  a  long  cherished  feeling 
that  some  day  he  might  become  a  missionary,  made 
this  response  an  easier  one  to  him,  though  always 
when  duty  called  he  had  ears  only  for  her  voice. 
To  Mrs.  Bickel  it  was  a  real  sacrifice  to  leave  the 
home  land,  break  up  her  home,  and  part  from 
kindred  and  friends.  Other  missionary  wives  could 
have  a  fixed  abode,  no  matter  how  humble  or  amid 
what  unpleasant  surroundings,  which  they  might 
transform  into  a  home,  and  where  they  might  rear 
their  children.  The  lady  of  the  FuJcuin  Maru  must 
be  content  to  call  the  ship  her  home,  and  to  live  a 
wanderer's  life.  But  love  and  duty  prevailed  also 
with  her. 

Resigning  immediately  his  position  in  the  Pub- 
lication House,  Captain  Bickel  devoted  the  re- 
mainder of  his  time  in  London  to  a  brief  course 
of  study  in  Spurgeon's  College,  and  in  May,  with 
his  wife  and  their  little  son,  made  the  journey  to 
Japan. 

Into  the  making  of  Captain  Bickel  there  entered 
the    courage,    energy,    determination,    fire    and 


52  CAPT Am  BICKEL^ 

strength  of  his  German  father;  the  refinement, 
delicacy,  purity,  gentleness  and  self -forgetful  love 
of  his  American  mother;  and  the  companionship, 
sympathy  and  loving  help  of  his  English  wife. 
There  went  into  it  the  wholesome  atmosphere  of  an 
ideal  Christian  home,  the  bracing  discipline  of  life 
at  sea,  the  broadening  influence  of  almost  world- 
wide travel,  and  an  experience  in  lines  of  Christian 
work  for  which  the  Inland  Sea  Mission  would  call. 
There  entered  into  it,  also,  silent  influences  of  the 
Divine  Spirit,  deep  heart  experiences  of  the  pres- 
ence of  God.  For  when  w^e  seek  to  analyze  the 
secret  of  a  man's  power  we  find  there  are  elements 
with  which  our  scalpel  or  crucible  cannot  deal: 
deep  well-springs  of  life  known  only  to  God. 

And  so  he  came  to  us,  an  instrument  for  God's 
service  which  God  Himself  had  chosen  and  fash- 
ioned, as  surely  as  He  had  selected  Moses,  David  or 
Isaiah  for  the  work  to  w^hich  they  were  called. 

Luke  Bickel,  like  our  Lord,  "  began  to  be  about 
thirty  years  of  age,''  when  he  entered  upon  the 
special  work  for  which  God  had  been  preparing 
him.  The  years  covered  by  that  work  were  less 
than  a  score.  But  we  know  that  God  did  not  count 
His  labour  lost.  The  public  ministry  of  our  Lord 
Was  much  more  brief. 


Ill 

THE  INLAND  SEA 

White  wings  folded  to  rest 

Over  Banshu's  silver  fiord, 
Sunlight  and  moonlight  and  starlight 

And  scent  of  the  blossoming  hills, 
Whisper  of  waves  on  the  strand, 

Hush  of  the  stars  on  the  sea, — 
Oft  when  the  night  wind  calls 

Do  I  see  the  moonlight's  gold 
Glow  through  the  dusk  of  the  pines 

That  sigh  to  the  fisher  girls. 

White  wings  lifted  in  flight 

O'er  the  blue  of  the  Harima  Deep, 
North  wind  and  west  wind  and  south  wind 

And  cool  salt  breath  of  the  sea, 
Song  of  the  sailors  at  work, 

Song  of  the  children  at  play, — 
Oft  when  the  tv.alight  falls 

Do  I  watch  the  round  red  moon 
Rise  through  the  purple  mists 

On  the  boats  of  the  fisher  lads. 


White  wings  drooping  In  sleep 
As  the  day  dies  down  in  the  west. 

Sunset  and  starlight  and  silence 
And  mystic  rune  of  the  tide, 

Kiss  of  the  breeze  on  my  cheek. 
Hush  of  the  night  in  my  heart, — 
53 


64  CAPTAIK  BICKEL 

Yonder  the  evening  star 

O'er  Kitagi's  shadowy  isle, 
But  far  are  the  pines  on  the  hill 

That  sigh  to  the  fisher  girls. 

GEOGRAPHICALLY,  at  least,  Japan  is  the 
Britain  of  the  Pacific  and  of  Asia.  With 
her  several  large  islands,  and  the  multitude 
of  lesser  ones  which  are  scattered  over  the  adjacent 
waters,  we  may  compare  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land, and  the  many  islands  which  lie  off  their 
coasts.  The  chain  of  the  Kuriles,  their  hills  still 
snow-capped  when  the  writer  beheld  them  on  a  day 
in  late  July,  almost  links  up  with  the  Aleutian 
chain  off  the  shores  of  Kamschatka,  thus  binding 
the  Sunrise  Kingdom  to  America  in  the  far  north, 
while  the  Liu  Chius,  steeped  in  perpetual  summer, 
bridge  the  southern  sea  to  Formosa,  thus  making 
Japan  a  near  neighbour  of  the  United  States  in  the 
Philippines.  From  the  Kurile  Strait  to  the  Bashee 
Channel  is  a  span  of  more  than  thirty  degrees  of 
latitude,  and  of  thirty- five  degrees  of  longitude; 
and  if  a  tourist  arrived  in  Yokohama  wishes  to  find 
the  limits  of  the  realm  of  l^oshihito  he  must  make 
a  journey  of  nearly  two  thousand  miles  into  the 
northeast,  and  another  journey  of  about  two 
thousand  miles  into  the  southwest,  so  far  flung  is 
the  Island  Empire  of  Japan.  His  westerly  journey 
would  bring  him,  after  nearly  four  hundred  miles 
travel,  to  the  shore  of  the  Inland  Sea  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Kobe,  and  then  down  its  shining,  isle- 
strewn  waters  to  Moji,  a  voyage  of  three  hundred 
miles ;  and  that  is  as  far  as  we  need  to  accompany 
him  at  present. 

The  Inland  Sea  is  fenced  from  the  open  Pacific 


THE  INLAND  SEA  56 

by  Shikoku,  the  Islaiid-of-tlie-roiir-Countries,  on 
the  south;  and  by  Kyushu,  the  Island-of-the-!Nine- 
Provinces,  on  the  west;  while  north  lie  the  Sanyo 
Provinces  of  the  main  island,  known  to  Japanese 
as  Hondo.  In  this  sea-wall  the  Creator  has  set 
three  splendid  gates :  the  Kii  Channel,  on  the  east 
of  Shikoku ;  the  Bungo  Strait,  on  the  west ;  and  the 
Strait  of  Shimonoseki,  between  Hondo  and  Kyushu. 
Through  these  three  gates  the  mighty  waters  of  the 
Pacific  come  sweeping  in,  in  three  tidal  streams, 
each  holding  to  its  own  time-table,  and  these  three 
presently  coming  into  conflict,  writhe  and  swirl 
and  twist  through  the  tortuous  channels  which 
separate  the  islands  with  a  tangle  and  confusion  of 
tides  most  perplexing  and  embarrassing  to  the 
navigator. 

No  one  who  has  sojourned  for  ever  so  brief  a  time 
in  the  Mikado's  Empire,  or  has  touched  at  her 
shores  as  he  went  his  way  across  the  world,  needs 
any  formal  introduction  to  the  Inland  Sea, — Seto- 
'Nai-Kaiy  the  "  Sea  within  the  Straits,"  as  the 
Japanese  call  it.  Its  fame  is  world-wide  as  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  parts  of  beautiful  Japan. 
Every  tourist  looks  forward  with  delightful  antic- 
ipation to  his  first  glimi:)se  of  its  waters,  and  its 
memory  abides  with  him  forever  as  one  of  the 
pleasantest  scenes  of  his  planet  pilgrimage.  From 
the  promenade  deck  of  the  big  ocean  liner,  speeding 
on  its  way  from  Vancouver  to  Hongkong,  or  from 
Shanghai  to  San  Francisco,  one  gazes  with  delight 
on  the  ever-changing  panorama,  or  with  face  glued 
to  the  window  of  a  Sanyo  Eailway  parlour-car  has 
fugitive  and  tantalizing  glimpses  of  its  enchanting 
loveliness. 


56  CAPTAra  BICKEL 

This  is  but  a  bowing  acquaintance,  liowever,  witb 
Our  Lady  of  a  Thousand  Isles.  A  degree  more 
intimate  is  that  to  which  one  may  attain  by  taking 
the  round  trip  on  one  of  the  little  passenger 
steamers  which  ply  between  Kobe  and  Shimonoseki, 
calling  at  the  various  ports  on  the  Sanyo  and 
Shikoku  coasts.  This  takes  one  zigzagging  in  a 
most  delightful  manner  into  all  kinds  of  un- 
dreamed-of and  picturesque  places.  The  writer 
remembers  with  pleasure  an  excursion  of  this  kind 
which  he  made  in  the  Inland  Sea  one  long  ago 
summer,  with  a  friend  who  had  come  to  Japan  on 
a  holiday  visit.  When  one  makes  this  trip  he  must 
be  sure  to  have  a  friend  along:  there  is  too  much 
fun  and  scenery  scattered  along  the  route  for  one 
to  consume  it  by  himself  alone.  The  only  draw- 
back to  our  enjoyment  was  that  there  was  that 
summer  one  of  those  epidemics  of  cholera  which 
used  to  afaict  Japan,  and  as  we  cruised  up  the 
Sanyo  coast  at  night,  at  every  port  we  made,  all 
the  passengers  were  routed  out  of  their  bunks,  or 
rather,  out  of  the  little  cabin  which  served  as  the 
universal  bunk,  and  inspected  by  a  squad  of  doctors 
and  policemen, 

**By  the  struggling  moonbeams'  misty  light 
And  a  lantern  dimly  burning," 

to  ascertain  whether  our  cholera  germs  had  not 
developed  since  our  previous  parade  an  hour  be- 
fore. 

But  for  real  heart  intimacy  with  the  Seto-Nai- 
Kaiy  one  must  steal  out  upon  its  shining  waters  in 
a  sailing  craft,  and  forgetting  the  crazy  restless 
modern  world  with  its  timepieces  and  time-tables 


THE  lOTiAND  SEA  57 

and  calendars,  float  and  drift  for  weeks  or  montlis 
togetlier  amid  tlie  uncounted  isles,  not  ^^whither- 
soever the  governor  listeth,"  as  a  navigator  of  a 
ship  of  sails  in  the  Inland  Sea  soon  learns  to  his 
cost,  but  as  wind  and  tide  may  dictate.  It  was  the 
writer's  great  privilege,  during  the  first  three  years 
of  the  Fukuin  Maru's  service,  to  spend  a  month 
each  summer  as  the  Captain's  guest,  and  in  some 
small  degree  as  an  assistant,  cruising  over  the  east- 
ern half  of  the  Inland  Sea  waters,  visiting  scores 
of  islands  and  drifting  past  the  shores  of  scores  or 
hundreds  more.  From  out  the  shadow  of  the  white 
sails  of  the  Little  White  Ship,  or  from  granite 
hilltops,  beneath  the  wide  boughs  of  ancient  pines, 
he  looked  forth  upon  Our  Lady  of  a  Thousand 
Jewels  robed  in  her  morning  or  evening  beauty. 
He  saw  her  lie  asleep  with  the  moonbeams  on  her 
bosom.  He  saw  her  laugh  and  dimple  and  sparkle 
under  the  bright  blue  day,  when  the  wind  was  warm 
from  the  west.  Ever  since,  he  has  regarded  her 
with  the  heart  of  a  lover.  While  he  writes,  three 
thousand  leagues  away,  he  hears  again  the  song  of 
the  tide  and  the  chant  of  the  sailors  bringing  the 
anchor  home;  he  sees  again  the  evening  star  hang 
like  a  silver  lamp  in  the  dusk  above  Kitagi,  and  the 
round  red  moon  rise  out  of  the  purple  tide  in  the 
Harima  IN'ada. 

"  A  wheel  within  a  wheel,  an  archipelago  within 
an  Island  Empire,"  wrote  Captain  Bickel  in  de- 
scription of  his  unique  parish,  "  such  is  the  Inland 
Sea.  The  Islands  are  many,  and  of  all  sizes. 
Some  are  mere  rocks  with  a  single  pine  tree  jutting 
out  at  that  odd  angle  so  dear  to  the  Japanese  lover 
of  nature.     Others  are  large,  well  cultivated  is- 


68  CAPTAUnT  BICKEL 

lands,  carrying  on  tlieir  bosoms  a  population  of 
twenty,  thirty,  forty  tliousaud  souls.  That  an 
island  a  mile  long  and  half  a  mile  Avide,  rising  a 
thousand  feet  above  the  rock-bound  coast,  should 
be  the  home  of  fifteen  hundred  i)eoi3le,  seems  im- 
possible; and  yet  there  are  several  such.  The 
average  height  of  the  Islands  is  one  thousand  feet, 
but  one  at  least  lifts  its  head  three  thousand.  The 
hills  are  chiefly  granite,  hard  and  beautiful  in 
some  places,  decaying  or  decayed  to  a  mere  rubble 
in  others.  A  strange  capping  of  the  granite  hills 
with  two  hundred  feet  of  conglomerate,  tossed  up 
by  some  old-time  ujjheaval  in  one  section,  and  a 
line  of  hard  black  rock  traversing  the  sea  in  an- 
other, are  the  chief  exceptions  to  the  rule  of  granite. 
To  stand  on  one  of  the  peaks  and  look  down  upon 
island  after  island,  channel  upon  channel,  village 
beyond  village,  many  miles  east,  many  miles  west, 
the  beautiful  tints  of  hill  and  field  mingling  with 
the  incredible  tints  of  sea  and  sky  in  their  varying 
moods,  is  to  realize  at  last  that  the  seemingly  ex- 
travagant colouring  of  the  Japanese  artist's  work 
is  but  a  true  interpretation  of  nature  as  seen  here." 
The  bed  of  the  Inland  Sea  is  a  great  valley,  or 
group  of  valleys,  bordered  by  the  mountain  lands 
of  Hondo,  Shikoku  and  Kyushu.  Through  this 
valley  the  tides  of  the  Pacific  ebb  and  flow,  and  the 
islands  which  emerge  from  its  salt  flood  are  but 
the  tops  of  peaks  and  ranges  whose  bases  are  far 
down  beneath  the  waters.  Their  granite  slopes, 
where  incapable  of  cultivation,  are  clothed  with  a 
scattered  growth  of  pines  which  somehow  manage 
to  find  footing  and  food.  Those  which  can  with 
any  possible  expense  of  toil  be  brought  under  till- 


THE  II^LAJ^B  SEA  59 

age  are  covered  with,  fields  of  vegetables  and  grain. 
On  their  steej)  sides  one  can  trace  the  narrow 
winding  patks  by  wbicK  the  peasants  climb  from 
their  village  Monies  beside  the  beach,  carrying  up 
the  necessary  fertilizers  and  bringing  down  the 
scanty  crops  which,  they  bave  coaxed  out  of  the 
thin  soil.  On  the  occasional  low  and  fertile 
levels  which  some  of  the  large  islands  afford  may 
be  seen  rich  acres  of  wheat  and  barley;  prolific 
patches  of  sweet  potatoes  and  other  vegetables, 
some  of  which  are  unknown  to  western  farmers ;  a 
few  fruit  trees  planted  about  the  farmhouses ;  and, 
here  and  there,  a  grove  of  tall  bamboos.  Culti- 
vated flowers  are  comparatively  rare,  considering 
the  llower-loving  nature  of  the  Japanese,  and  one 
of  Captain  BickeFs  projects  at  the  time  the  writer 
was  tramping  the  Islands  with  him  was  the  dis- 
tribution of  flower  seeds  to  the  village  homes,  and 
the  encouragement  of  the  people  to  set  out  i)lots  of 
flowers  about  their  houses,  thus  adding  some  little 
touch  of  beauty  and  refinement  to  their  severely 
simple  and  almost  squalid  lives.  Nature,  how- 
ever, especially  in  Japan,  never  fails  to  adorn  her- 
self with  such  charms  as  she  may,  and  on  hillsides 
unsuited  to  cultivation  she  delights  the  eye  with  a 
profusion  of  azaleas,  wisteria,  or  other  wild  flowers, 
and  to  all  are  given  with  impartial  hand  the  beauty 
of  sea  and  sl?y. 

As  one  looks  down  the  silver  stretches  of  the 
Inland  Sea  from  the  vessel's  deck,  or  from  some 
granite  hilltop,  he  notes  here  and  there  the  char- 
acteristic smooth  shapely  cone  of  an  extinct  vol- 
cano rising  from  the  waters — ^miniature  Fujiyamas, 
which  through  long  millenniums  before  the  dawn  of 


60  CAPTATK  BICK:EL 

Japanese  history  gradually  piled  themselves  up 
from  the  deep  sea  levels  with  the  ashes  of  their 
internal  fires.  Now  they  stand  peaceful  and  green, 
clothed  and  in  their  right  mind,  so  to  speak,  and 
are  an  added  element  of  beauty  and  interest  in  the 
scenery. 

The  Islands  lie  for  the  most  part  in  large 
clusters,  with  comparatively  wide  spaces  of  open 
water  dividing  group  from  grou}).  Each  of  these 
consists  of  several  large  islands  and  many  smaller 
ones.  The  open  reaches  of  water  between  are 
called  nada^  as,  the  Harima  Nada,  the  Bingo  ISTada, 
or  as  we  might  say,  the  Sweep,  or  Stretch,  of 
Harima  or  of  Bingo.  These  nada  have  a  width  of 
fifty  miles  or  more,  and  in  windy  weather  manage 
to  get  up  a  pretty  lumpy  sea.  They  lie  in  the  track 
of  the  typhoons  which  are  born  off  the  south  coast 
of  China  and  travel  in  a  northeasterly  direction 
across  the  Eastern  Sea  and  up  the  shores  of  Japan, 
as  far  as  Tokyo  or  beyond,  leaving  uprooted  trees 
and  demolished  buildings  in  their  wake.  On  the 
occasion  referred  to  above  when  the  writer  took  the 
Inland  Sea  round  trip,  the  little  steamer  was 
caught  in  the  edge  of  such  a  typhoon  just  as  she 
was  making  Kobe  harbour,  and  it  was  interesting 
to  see  the  gusts  of  wind  blow  off  the  crests  of  the 
waves  in  horizontal  lines  of  water,  and  pluck  away 
piece  by  piece  our  Japanese  flag. 

The  writer  recalls  also  a  certain  wild  day  when 
the  wind  had  caught  the  Fukuin  Maru  off  a  lee 
shore  in  the  Bingo  Nada.  It  would  hardly  be 
called  a  typhoon,  but  a  gale  was  blowing  heavy 
enough  to  render  our  position  somewhat  insecure, 
though  we  had  taken  the  precaution  to  lay  out  an 


Si 

(—1  P 

r       "^' 

O 

I— 


O 


THE  INLAND  SEA  61 

extra  anchor.  The  Captain  had  sent  his  family 
ashore  to  seek  refuge  in  a  Japanese  inn  while  the 
storm  lasted,  and  those  who  remained  on  board  the 
pitching  and  tossing  little  vessel,  lashed  with  wind 
and  rain,  kept  an  anxious  eye  on  the  weather  and 
wondered  if  the  anchors  would  hold.  The  Fukuln 
Maru  must  have  j)assed  through  many  such  and 
worse  experiences,  during  the  typhoon  seasons,  or 
in  the  heavy  gales  of  winter.  Often  in  Yokohama 
or  Tokyo,  when  trees  and  fences  were  falling  and 
roof-tiles  fiying,  we  remembered  the  Little  White 
Ship  and  T>^ondered  what  peril  she  might  be  in  of 
storm  and  darkness.  If  one  would  know  what  the 
force  of  the  waves  may  be  in  these  comparatively 
narrow  waters,  let  him  notice  how  great  slabs  of 
stone  used  in  the  construction  of  sea-walls  or  boat- 
landings  have  been  lifted  and  shifted. 

Such  is  the  Sea  of  Islands  within  which  lay  the 
larger  part  of  Captain  BickeFs  parish ;  beautiful  as 
a  glimpse  of  Paradise,  on  a  fair  June  morning,  but 
with  its  roaring  gales  and  swirling  tides,  its  tortu- 
ous and  uncharted  channels,  its  hidden  rocks  and 
treacherous  shoals,  promising  a  plenty  of  difficulty 
and  danger  to  those  who  would  do  business  on  its 
waters.  Our  Captain,  there  to  do  "business  for 
the  Xing,"  found  the  promise  amply  fulfilled. 
"'  This  sea,"  he  writes,  "  represents  in  fine  weather 
a  veritable  wonderland  of  lovely  scenery,  but  for 
the  navigator  it  has  features  that  at  times  cause 
grave  anxiety.  Powerful  currents  sweeping 
through  narrow  passages,  submerged  rocks  and 
sand-banks,  strong,  sudden  gales,  with  an  occa- 
sional typhoon,  all  have  a  prominent  part  in  the 
life  of  one  who  plans  to  use  a  Mission  Ship  in  the 


C2  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

Inland  Sea.  Typhoons  alone  have  an  almost  yearly 
tribute  of  lives  from  the  Inland  Sea,  and  the 
Islands  suffer  heavily  through  the  havoc  they  work. 
The  writer  has  seen  75,000  yen  (|37,500)  of  damage 
done  in  one  night  on  one  island  alone  by  one  of 
these  destructive  gales." 

But  though  the  Inland  Sea,  with  its  many  pop- 
ulous islands,  might  be  supposed  to  afford  ample 
space  for  the  activities  of  any  one  missionary,  it 
did  not  satisfy  the  evangelistic  zeal  of  the  Skipper 
of  the  Gospel  Ship.  With  a  Pauline  hunger  for 
the  regions  bej^ond  he  looked  out  across  its  con- 
fines, to  the  isles  of  the  open  sea.  If  one  consults 
the  map  of  Japan  he  will  notice,  in  the  Korean 
Strait,  the  Island  of  Tsushima,  made  famous  by 
the  great  naval  battle  which  virtually  ended  the 
Eusso-Japanese  War,  the  engagement  taking  place 
in  the  adjacent  waters.  Tsushima,  and  the  smaller 
islands  beside  it,  being  of  great  military  impor- 
tance, are  naturally  closed  to  vessels  under  foreign 
flags;  but  south  and  southwest  of  these  are  other 
groups  of  islands,  some  of  them  of  a  considerable 
area.  Upon  these  the  Captain  set  his  heart,  and 
at  his  request  their  names  were  inserted  in  the 
Fukuin  Maru's  cruising  permit  issued  at  the  be- 
ginning of  his  work,  although  it  was  many  years 
before  he  could  make  his  first  visit  there.  This 
portion  of  his  parish  he  has  named  the  Sei-Namhu 
or  Southwestern  Division. 

"  Pass  out  of  Shimonoseki  Straits,  steer  south- 
west seventy  miles,  and  you  reach  the  Iki  Island 
group;  keep  on  and  you  reach  the  Hirado,  Upper 
Goto  and  Lower  Goto  groups  in  succession.  The 
latter  lie  seventy  miles  west  of  Nagasaki ;  and  the 


THE  INLAND  SEA  63 

four  groups  constitute  the  Southwestern  Division. 
There  are  here  some  seventy  islands,  large  and 
small.  Thrown  up  in  some  terrible  upheaval  in  the 
dim  past,  their  rock-bound  shores  have  carried  on 
the  battle  with  gale  and  wave  until  they  appear  as 
stern  sentinels  forbidding  approach." 

Captain  Bickel  describes  the  scenery  of  these 
open  sea  islands  as  being  exceedingly  wild  and 
romantic.  Deep  fiords,  like  those  of  the  coast  of 
Norway,  extend  far  in  among  the  hills,  affording 
fine  anchorage  for  vessels,  and  infinite  delight  to 
the  lover  of  nature.  Travellers  by  boat  from 
Shimonoseki  to  Nagasaki  enjoy  glimpses  of  the 
shores  and  hills  of  these  islands,  first  sighting  Iki 
on  the  starboard,  and  later  running  between  Hirado 
and  the  Upper  Gotos  as  the  ship  swings  round  for 
Nagasaki  harbour;  but  they  are  practically  unex- 
plored territory  to  Europeans.  Some  day  their 
v/ild  beauty  may  make  them  a  favourite  resort  for 
tourists,  but  their  interest  to  us  lies  in  the  fact 
that  they  are  included  in  the  Fukuin  Maru's  visit- 
ing list. 


V 


o 


IV 

ISLAJ^D  FOLK 

N  the  clustered  islands  of  Japan's  tiny 
Mediterranean,  islands  as  lovely  in  their 
way  as 

■  The  Isles  of  Greece,  the  Isles  of  Greece, 
Where  burning  Sappho  loved  and  sang,'' 


are  the  homes,  as  already  mentioned,  of  a  million 
and  a  half  of  people.  It  has  been  popularly  sup- 
posed, and  not  unnaturally,  that  the  Islanders  are 
chiefly  fisher-folk;  but  this  is  far  from  being  the 
case,  only  a  small  proportion  of  them  winning  their 
livelihood  with  net  and  line.  Fish,  indeed,  do  not 
appear  to  exist  in  these  waters  in  any  great  abun- 
dance, if  the  writer  may  judge  from  his  own  vain 
attempts  to  lure  them  to  his  hook.  There  are, 
nevertheless,  several  varieties  of  good  food  fishes, 
such  as  the  tai,  or  bream,  considered  a  great  deli- 
cacy, and  the  sawara,  a  long  slender  fish,  of  excel- 
lent flavour,  which  are  taken  in  considerable  quan- 
tities. Firms  that  deal  in  fish  have  depots  at  con- 
venient places  among  the  Islands,  and  to  these 
the  fishermen  bring  their  spoils  fresh  from  the  nets, 
and  thence  they  are  forwarded  as  rapidly  as  possi- 
ble to  the  big  fish-markets  of  the  chief  cities,  from 
which  they  are  again  hurried  out  to  the  small  fish- 

64 


ISLAND  FOLK  65 

dealers  who  are  found  in  every  street.  There  is  no 
more  lively  sight  in  a  Japanese  city  than  the  little 
fish-carts,  each  pushed  and  pulled  by  several 
stalwart  young  lads,  being  rushed  on  their  way, 
with  much  whooping  and  shouting.  As  fish  is  the 
every-day  meat  of  the  Japanese  people  the  fisheries 
are  an  important  industry,  wherever  carried  on; 
but  the  most  valuable  are  on  the  northern  coasts, 
where  such  staple  food-fish  as  herring,  cod,  mack- 
erel and  salmon  abound,  the  southern  waters  being 
less  productive.  The  Islanders  also  gather  large 
quantities  of  other  marine  animals,  such  as  shell- 
fish, sea-slugs  and  octopus.  The  sea-slug  is  a 
particularly  unattractive  creature,  looking  about 
as  toothsome  as  a  toad.  As  for  the  octopus,  to  see 
him  crawling  around  in  a  fish-tub,  with  his  livid 
white  body,  snaky  tentacles  and  wicked,  protruding 
eyes,  is  anything  but  an  appetizing  spectacle.  But 
boiled,  sliced,  and  served  with  vinegar  and  horse- 
radish he  is  su£S.ciently  palatable  and  wholesome, 
and  the  missionary  on  country  tour  finds  him  a 
welcome  addition  to  his  rice  and  omelet. 

The  chief  industry  on  the  Islands,  as  in  all  Japan, 
is  farming,  of  that  laborious,  intensive,  market- 
garden  type  which  seeks  to  coax  the  largest  possi- 
ble yield  from  a  limited  amount  of  available  land. 
Horses  and  cattle  are  almost  unknown,  modern 
farming  implements  and  machines  are  of  course 
undreamed  of,  human  muscle,  with  primitive  tools 
and  methods,  being  the  sole  dependence.  In  seed- 
ing, cultivating,  harvesting'  and  milling  the  Is- 
landers follow  the  tradition  of  the  elders,  but  by 
industry  and  frugality  are  able  to  make  a  living. 
Sugar  growing  is  an  important  branch  of  agri- 


m  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

culture.  Many  are  occupied  in  tlie  manufacture 
of  soy  and  macaroni;  in  the  production  of  salt 
from  sea -water;  in  the  weaving  of  matting  and  of 
cotton  cloth,  or  in  braiding  straw  for  hats.  There 
are  many  quarries,  where  the  granite  of  the  moun- 
tains is  cut  out  in  great  blocks,  and  sent  by  boat 
to  distant  cities.  In  every  village  of  any  impor- 
tance one  finds  of  course  the  doctor,  the  school- 
teacher, the  postmaster,  the  policeman,  and  others 
who  sit  in  the  seats  of  the  mighty,  as  well  as  trades- 
men and  artisans  of  various  kinds. 

After  what  has  been  said  above  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  remark  that  the  Island  Folk  are  by  no 
means  savages  or  barbarians,  like  the  inhabitants 
of  many  of  the  Pacific  islands  when  missionary 
work  was  begun  among  them;  though  a  traveller 
happening  upon  a  fleet  of  the  unpainted,  rakish- 
looking  fishing-boats,  their  stalwart,  naked,  copper- 
hued  crews  drawing  their  seines  to  the  rhythm  of 
some  wild  chorus,  might  mistake  them  for  such. 
Being  Japanese,  all  the  Islanders,  including  the 
fishermen,  are  civilized.  They  live  in  frame  houses 
and  dress  in  the  product  of  the  loom.  The  cour- 
tesies and  amenities  of  social  life  are  not  strange 
to  them.  Their  communities  are  organized  and 
policed,  and  enjoy  a  fairly  good  postal  and  tele- 
graph service.  Most  of  the  people  have  at  least 
the  elements  of  education,  and  public  schools  are 
within  the  reach  of  the  children  of  most  of  the  Is- 
lands, though  the  buildings  and  the  methods  of 
instruction  may  leave  something  to  be  desired.  It 
may  fairly  be  said  that  the  Islands  lag  behind  the 
rest  of  Japan  in  industrial,  educational  and  social 
advancement. 


ISLAND  FOLK  67 

The  general  impression  a  visitor  gets  as  he  goes 
from  village  to  village,  and  enters  the  homes  of  the 
peoi)le,  is  of  poverty,  though  not  abject  poverty,  and 
there  are  some  who  according  to  Japanese  stand- 
ards are  very  comfortably  off. 

For  the  most  part,  like  other  Japanese,  the  Is- 
landers are  a  quiet,  sensible,  industrious,  law- 
abiding  people.  Pirates  are  not  unknown,  and 
Captain  Bickel  has  occasionally  been  exposed  to 
danger  from  this  source ;  but  owing  to  strict  police 
surveillance  they  do  not  become  the  menace  in  any 
part  of  Japan  that  they  do  in  Chinese  waters.  Not 
that  the  Chinese  are  lenient  with  these  gentry  when 
captured.  In  travelling  on  the  Chinese  rivers  and 
canals  one  sees  now  and  then  on  the  shore  a  boat 
sawn  asunder.  It  is  the  boat  of  a  river-robber, 
who  has  doubtless  paid  with  his  head  for  his 
crimes,  and  whose  boat  has  been  cut  in  twain  and 
left  by  the  water's  edge  as  a  warning  to  others. 

The  social  evil,  which  is  the  shame  and  curse  of 
Japan,  is  even  more  rife  among  the  Islands  than 
elsewhere,  and  is  regarded  with  a  degree  of  indif- 
ference or  complacency  which  is  almost  incredible. 
In  the  case  of  one  community  which  Captain 
Bickel  mentions  as  an  example  of  the  conditions 
that  prevail  in  the  Islands,  when  strangers  arrive, 
the  daughters  in  the  village  homes  are  summoned 
by  the  local  authorities,  in  regular  turn,  to  enter- 
tain the  visitors,  and  consider  it  a  privilege  and 
honour  to  be  able  in  this  way  to  add  something  to 
the  family  income,  or  even  to  help  an  ambitious 
brother  to  take  a  course  in  the  University.  Bud- 
dhism and  Shintoism,  though  there  are  many  tem- 
ples and  priests  on  the  Islands,  do  nothing  to  check 


Q8  CAPTAIN  BIOKEL 

this  evil,  being  entirely  destitute  of  moral  or 
spiritual  life.  Instead,  the  priests  are  notorious 
for  immorality,  and  the  more  famous  the  temple 
the  more  nmnerous  the  dens  of  vice  that  surround 
it.  But  all  this  is  true,  in  hardly  less  degree,  of 
all  Japan. 

It  will  be  interesting,  here,  to  have  Captain 
Bickel's  description  of  the  people  among  whom  he 
laboured :  "  The  term  '  Islander '  has  ever  stood 
for  independence,  the  world  over.  The  x)eople  here 
are  no  excei)tion.  Some  of  the  Islands  never  were 
under  the  sway  of  a  feudal  lord.  Some,  until  a  few 
years  ago,  knew  no  taxation.  Thrifty,  self-reliant, 
industrious,  they  have  the  faults  of  their  virtues  in 
being  proud  and  self-sufficient.  The  isolation  of 
many  of  these  Islands  is  far  more  extreme  than 
people  on  the  mainland  can  be  persuaded  to  be- 
lieve. Thousands  of  the  children  have  never  seen 
a  horse,  much  less  a  rickshaw  or  a  railway  train. 
The  Mission  Ship  cannot  carry  a  horse,  but  does 
carry  a  model  of  a  train  to  show  the  children. 
Twenty-one  smaller  islands  in  one  group  have  but 
one  post-office  among  them ;  in  many  cases  the  sick 
have  to  be  taken  in  boats  to  see  a  doctor,  and  in 
probably  not  more  than  one  out  of  twenty  villages 
is  there  an  inn  of  any  kind.  Accounts  all  run  six 
months,  settlement  being  made  twice  a  year.  Old 
Calendar  reckoning  holds  almost  entire  sway,  and 
in  some  places  the  hours  of  the  day  are  still  given 
in  the  old  style  periods. 

"  In  spiritual  matters  the  average  Islander,  hav- 
ing his  comprehension  dulled  by  the  long-continued 
influence  upon  him  and  his  surroundings  of  re- 
ligious systems  possessing,  here  at  least,  no  vital 


ISLAND  FOLK  69 

power,  Ms  only  tliouglit  is  for  material  tilings.  All 
that  is  ennobling,  pure,  helpful  and  uplifting  exists 
for  him  only  in  the  form  of  dimly  distant  imper- 
sonal theories.  It  does  not  touch  his  life.  Speak 
to  him  of  theories  and  he  is  with  you;  urge  upon 
him  a  life  according  to  those  theories  and  he  seems 
to  remain  untouched.  If  he  be  intelligent  he 
despises  the  priests,  whose  lives  are  usually  more 
sordid  even  than  his  own.  If  he  is  ignorant  he 
lives  in  dread  of  what  he  does  not  comprehend. 
Let  him  but  earn  money  that  he  may  improve  his 
external  conditions  of  life,  which  as  a  rule  are 
quite  up  to  the  average  for  Japan,  and  he  feels 
that  all  will  be  well.  Buddhism  in  its  many  forms ; 
Shintoism,  not  as  a  patriotic  cultus,  but  regarded 
as  a  religion,  with  its  manifold  gods  for  manifold 
ills;  TenrikyOy  Kurosumikyo,  TensokyOy  Kanamit- 
sukyo — all  have  their  following;  while  in  many  a 
village  the  mikOy  or  soothsaying  women,  have  more 
power  over  the  hearts  of  the  people  than  any  one 
else.  Allowing  all  that  is  good  in  Buddhism,  it  is 
a  sad  commentary  on  its  degeneracy  in  these 
Islands  that  in  those  places  in  which  it  is  most 
earnestly  adhered  to,  the  people  are  intellec- 
tually, spiritually  and  morally  on  the  lowest 
plane." 

TenrikyOy  the  "Eeligion  of  the  Heavenly  Rea- 
son," may  be  compared  to  Christian  Science,  both 
in  its  general  features,  and  in  having  a  woman  for 
its  founder.  It  has  had  a  much  more  rapid  spread 
in  Japan  than  Christian  Science  has  had  in 
America,  and  has  many  adherents  among  the 
credulous  Islanders.  The  other  three  supersti- 
tions mentioned  may  be  likened  to  Dowieism,  Holy- 


70  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

Kollerism  and  otlier  absurd  cults  that  flourish  un- 
der the  shadow  of  Christianity. 

As  for  the  attitude  of  the  Islanders  toward  the 
religion  of  Christ,  it  could  be  matched  on  the  main- 
land only  in  such  out-of-the-way  regions  as  moun- 
tain-walled Hida,  or  the  lonely  peninsula  of  Noto. 
"  The  Islanders  of  the  Inland  Sea/'  writes  Mission- 
ary Briggs,  of  Himeji,  who  has  been  long  in  close 
touch  with  the  Fukuin  Maru,  and  a  warm  friend 
and  constant  helper  of  her  work,  "  were,  when  Cap- 
tain Bickel  went  to  them,  truly  of  one  mind  in 
their  thought  that  Yaso-Kyo  was  the  worst  teach- 
ing that  could  come  to  Japan.  Had  not  the  fathers 
and  forefathers  for  three  hundred  years  handed 
down  the  story  of  Christian  traitors  whom  the 
rulers  had  to  crush  out  of  the  national  life,  as 
deadly  serpents  must  be  mercilessly  destroyed? 
INow  the  day  had  arrived  when  the  teachers  of  this 
long-time  forbidden  religion  were  again  in  Japan. 
The  spirit  of  toleration  might  w^eaken  opposition 
in  Tokyo,  and  the  towns  of  the  mainland,  but  that 
spirit  had  not  reached  the  Islands,  and  they  were 
a  unit  in  their  loyal  hatred  of  the  traditional 
enemy." 

''  The  Islanders,''  to  return  to  the  Captain's  log, 
"  are  thirty  years  behind  the  cities  of  the  mainland 
in  general  thought  and  life.  The  old  traditions 
have  stronger  hold  in  such  localities,  and  that 
Christianity  is  a  teaching  to  be  despised  and  re- 
jected is  a  tradition  that  for  three  hundred  years 
has  been  undisputed.  '  Christians  make  bad  citi- 
zens.' ^  Christians  worship  a  separate  King,  one 
Jesus.'  '  Christianity  ruins  home  life ;  wives  rebel ; 
children  despise  their  parents.'     '  Christian  rites 


ISLAND  FOLK  71 

are  obscene.'  ^  Christians  are  political  intriguers.' 
^  Christians  eat  their  dead,  or  at  least  a  portion  of 
their  bodies,  and  drink  the  blood.'  These  and  a 
thousand  more  are  their  prejudices." 

The  name  Yaso — Jesus — was  and  still  is  a  word 
with  which  mothers  frighten  naughty  children  into 
obedience.  When  the  Fukuin  Maru  made  her  first 
call  at  some  of  the  Islands  the  children  fled  in 
terror,  fearing  the  "  tall  foreign  devil "  would  kill 
them  and  drink  their  blood,  or  use  their  flesh  for 
medicine. 

In  some  places  the  belief  prevailed  that  when 
Christians  died  their  bodies  were  crucified. 

"  Sorrow  came  to  one  evangelist  through  the 
death  of  his  child.  Painful  as  it  was,  he  decided 
to  use  this  event  for  Christ's  cause,  if  possible. 
Eumour  had  it  that  the  child  would  be  mutilated 
and  nails  driven  through  its  little  hands  and  feet 
in  the  casket.  All  was  prepared.  The  people 
came,  three  hundred  strong.  The  evangelist,  father 
of  the  little  one,  gave  a  heart-moving  address  on 
the  love  of  God,  and  the  Christian  home.  We  then 
invited  all  present  to  see  the  little  one,  that  we 
might  prove  the  rumours  false.  Keeping  the  press- 
ing throng  in  check  with  our  broad  sailor-back,  and 
holding  the  casket  firmly  that  it  might  not  be  over- 
thrown, many  were  the  expressions  of  surprise  we 
heard,  for  what  they  saw  was  but  a  dear  little 
child  lying  amid  soft  white  cushions  as  if  asleep, 
with  a  rose  held  in  one  hand." 

Here  and  there,  far  apart,  in  this  dense  dark 
night  of  ignorance  and  prejudice,  gleamed  a  dim 
tiny  star;  and  from  the  Christian  centres  on  the 
mainland  stole  in  an  occasional  misty  wavering 


72  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

gleam  of  ligM,  that  merely  served  to  accentuate 
the  darkness.  When  the  vessel  made  her  first 
rounds  of  the  Islands  a  sharp  lookout  was  kept 
for  Christians  and  persons  interested  in  Christi- 
anity. A  few,  not  half  a  dozen  in  all  perhaps,  were 
discovered  who  knew  something  of  the  Gospel  by 
an  experience  of  its  iDOwer.  They  had  become  be- 
lievers when  visiting  the  mainland.  The  writer, 
when  a  guest  on  the  ship,  had  much  pleasure  in 
meeting  several  of  these  isolated  Christians,  and 
from  the  Captain's  lips  he  heard  some  pathetic 
stories  of  their  loneliness  and  fidelity,  almost 
smothered  as  they  were  by  the  mass  of  heathenism 
about  them.  The  coming  of  the  Gospel  Ship  was 
to  them  literally  a  Godsend,  and  as  a  shower  of 
the  latter  rain.  There  v»' ere  found  a  few,  also,  who 
had  in  some  way  learned  enough  about  the  new 
faith  to  make  them  willing  to  give  it  a  favourable 
hearing,  but  their  number  was  almost  negligible. 
In  reporting  the  work  of  the  vessel  for  the  first 
year  of  its  service,  Captain  Bickel  wrote,  in  sub- 
stance : 

"  It  was  our  privilege  to  visit  sixty-two  islands 
large  and  small,  holding  meetings  in  some  350 
towns  and  villages.  Into  these  meetings  were 
gathered,  at  a  low  estimate,  40,000  different  peo- 
ple, and  of  these  assuredly  ninety  per  cent,  had 
never  before  heard  a  direct  presentation  of  the 
Gospel.  The  knowledge  of  another  five  per  cent,  is 
on  a  par  with  that  of  a  friend  last  night  who  was 
the  great  man  of  the  occasion  because  he  could 
claim  a  previous  acquaintance  with  Christianity. 
Our  friend  announced  with  beaming  face  that  the 
teaching  would  be  all  right,  for  it  consisted  in 


ISLAOT)  FOLK  73 

giving  up  tobacco  and  strong  drink,  and  receiving 
some  sort  of  mysterious  power  called  the  Holy 
Spirit,  by  which  if  you  knew  that  your  neighbour 
had  a  hundred  yen  in  the  house  you  need  only 
pray  and  it  would  be  transferred  by  magic  to  your 
own  pocket.  But  putting  smiles  aside  let  me  as- 
sure you  that  the  need,  the  desperate  need,  of  these 
Island  people  in  soul  and  body  is  such  that  but  for 
a  sailor's  disposition  to  see  the  bright  side,  and  a 
Christian's  firm  faith  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of 
the  purposes  of  an  all-wise  God  for  these  His  lost 
and  erring  children,  our  heart  would  be  sad  beyond 
endurance." 

It  was  to  a  people  that  sat  in  darkness,  to  them 
that  were  in  the  region  and  the  shadow  of  death, 
that  the  Little  White  Ship  came  sailing  down  the 
west  with  her  message  of  light  and  life. 


THE  LITTLE  WHITE  SHIP 

IN  tlie  city  of  Kobe,  near  tlie  eastern  limit  of 
the  Beto-Nai-Kai,  tliere  stood,  on  the  high 
ground  above  the  business  section,  on  the 
Yama-Naka-Doriy  a  missionary  home,  with  win- 
dows looking  out  over  the  city  roofs  on  the  shining 
waters.  Here  there  dwelt,  at  the  time  the  tale  of 
the  Little  White  Ship  begins,  Kobert  Thomson,  a 
missionary  from  the  land  of  the  heather.  He  had 
arrived  in  Yokohama  from  Edinburgh  in  1884  as 
an  agent  of  the  Scottish  Bible  Society,  but  a  few 
years  later  had  joined  the  Baptist  Mission  and  had 
been  stationed  at  Kobe.  Living  close  to  the  In- 
land Sea,  with  his  field  of  labour  skirting  its  shores, 
it  is  not  strange  that  its  Islands  and  Islanders  were 
often  in  his  thoughts,  or  that  as  he  sat  at  his  study 
window  looking  off  into  the  sunset  there  came  to 
him  again  and  again  the  dream  of  a  day  when 
every  Island  village  should  have  the  message  of 
the  Cross.  And  while  he  dreamed,  as  we  have  al- 
ready seen  in  part.  Providence  was  preparing  a 
fulfillment  of  his  dream. 

The  ordinary  world-tourist,  leaning  on  the  rail 
of  the  ocean  liner  as  she  threads  the  narrow  waters 
of  the  Inland  Sea,  probably  bestows  but  little 
thought  upon  either  the  material  or  the  spiritual 

74 


THE  LITTLE  WHITE  SHIP  75 

condition  of  tlie  people  who  have  their  homes  on 
its  Islands.  He  admires  the  ever  varying  but  al- 
ways lovely  scenery.  He  views  with  interest  the 
quaint  craft  that  traverse  its  waters, — ^medieval 
trading  vessels,  low  of  prow  and  lofty  of  poop; 
fishing  boats  with  sails  ahoist  running  up  to  market 
with  the  night's  catch.  He  wonders  to  see  steep 
island  slopes  tilled  to  their  summits.  As  for  those 
who  sail  the  ships  and  cast  the  nets  and  cultivate 
the  hills  and  live  in  the  gray  villages,  they  win 
scarcely  a  passing  thought.  But  among  many 
travellers  there  came  one,  a  woman,  who  looked 
out  upon  the  Islands  not  merely  with  the  eyes  of 
a  tourist,  but  with  a  heart  like  His  of  whom  we 
are  told  that  He  had  compassion  on  the  multitude. 
To  a  dear  old  lady  from  Glasgow,  who  had  carried 
in  her  thought  and  prayer  the  neglected  folli  of  all 
the  little  islands  of  Japan,  and  through  whose 
Christian  liberality  the  Liu-Chiu  Mission  was  be- 
gun, which,  however,  is  another  story,  the  Islanders 
of  the  Inland  Sea  are  indebted  for  the  opportunity 
to  hear  the  Gospel  story.  It  came  to  them  after 
her  earthly  travels  were  ended  and  God  had  called 
her  home  to  Himself.  She  had  the  joy  of  seeing 
the  standard  of  the  Cross  set  up  in  the  Liu-Chiu 
capital;  but  it  remained  to  her  son,  Mr.  Robert 
Allan,  in  memory  of  his  saintly  and  sainted  mother, 
to  give  effect  to  her  solicitude  for  the  Island  Folk 
of  the  Inner,  as  well  as  of  the  Outer,  Seas. 

It  was  a  matter  of  discussion,  indeed,  for  a  time, 
how  these  Inland  Sea  folk  might  best  be  reached. 
The  great  expense  of  building,  equipping,  and 
running  a  Mission  vessel  had  to  be  considered,  for 
mission  treasuries  are  not  inexhaustible.     It  had 


76  CAPTAIK  BICKEL 

been  found  practicable  to  carry  on  a  successful,  if 
limited,  work  in  the  Liu-CMus  by  utilizing  for 
missionary  travel  existing  steamship  communica- 
tion between  the  mainland  and  the  islands,  and  by 
stationing  Japanese  evangelists  at  important  cen- 
tres. Might  not  an  Inland  Sea  Mission  be  prose- 
cuted by  making  use  of  the  steamship  lines  which 
navigate  that  Sea,  and  the  ferry  boats  and  fishing 
boats  which  everywhere  abound,  and  by  locating 
workers  on  the  principal  islands?  Doubtless  some- 
thing could  have  been  accomplished  in  that  way; 
but  the  only  hope  of  a  general  evangelization  of  the 
people  scattered  over  the  hundreds  of  smaller 
islands,  within  a  reasonable  time,  was  a  mission 
ship.  As  Captain  Bickel  remarked,  "  To  seek  to 
evangelize  an  archipelago  without  a  mission  ship 
would  seem  akin  to  clearing  a  forest  without  an 
axe."  As  at  once  a  sailor  and  a  missionary  he 
bears  witness  to  the  close  relation  between  ships 
and  missions : 

*'Some  one  has  said,  and  that  in  all  reverence,  that 
the  first  Mission  Ship  was  that  of  Noah.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  ships  have  played  a  great  part  in  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  world.  Those  who  have  gone  in  them  have 
over  and  over  again  been  called  upon  to  break  with  the 
conventional  ideas  of  men,  and  good  men  at  that.  They 
went  forth  with  a  mingled  boldness  and  childlike  faith 
into  the  regions  beyond,  such  as  proved  at  once  the 
source  of  bitterest  criticism  at  the  outset,  and  mistinted 
commendation  in  the  outcome. 

*'  *  Loosing  from  Troas,  Paul  came  with  a  straight 
course  to  Samothracia  and  the  next  day  to  Neapolis.' 
Men  objected,  but  the  call  of  the  great  and  restless  deep 
of  men's  souls  was  loud  within  him.    Not  all  the  diffi- 


THE  LITTLE  WHITE  SHIP  77 

culties  of  the  wide  and  untried  sea  of  missions  to  the 
Gentiles,  nor  the  dangers  of  an  earthly  sea,  could  deter 
him.  A  Carey,  a  Judson,  a  Livingstone  went  forth  in 
ships.  Fitting  indeed  was  it,  nay,  it  is  even  now,  when 
a  utilitarian  spirit  too  often  crowds  sentiment  to  the 
wall,  that  the  proverbial  boldness  and  simple  spirit  of 
the  men  of  the  sea  should  serve  the  boldness  and  simple 
faith  of  these  Columbuses  of  the  Cross  of  Christ. 

"And  who  shall  deny  that  this  earthly  barrier  of  an 
earthly  sea  has  spoken  of  the  things  of  God,  and  had  a 
potent  influence  over  the  spirit  of  the  men  with  the 
God-given  vision  of  the  regions  beyond?  To  some  men 
the  sea  is  but  a  great  ditch  and  the  subject  of  Christian 
Missions  is  no  better.  To  others  this  greatest  of  Natm'e  's 
many  mysteries  is  a  veritable  forecourt  in  the  temple  of 
their  God.  What  wonder,  if  these  men  of  large  outlook, 
these  messengers  of  a  world-wide  religion,  should  share 
the  experiences  of  some  of  those  who  go  down  to  the  sea 
in  ships,  and  do  business  on  the  great  waters,  and 
beholding  the  wonders  of  their  God  should  go  on  with 
renewed  faith  in  His  ability  to  hold  them,  as  well  as  this 
great  sea  of  many  waters,  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand! 
Well  for  the  seaman  who  never  loses  the  impression  made 
upon  his  soul  when  first  he*  beheld  the  vast  expanse  of 
God's  great  deep  stretched  out  before  him  and  resolved 
to  conquer  its  difficulties !  Well  indeed  for  the  mission- 
ary who  ever  lives  under  the  influence  of  the  moment 
when  he  first  had  a  God-sent  vision  of  the  vast  expanse 
of  God's  love,  and  the  desperate  need  of  human  hearts 
that  have  wandered  afar ! 

"Most  ships  have  been  used  in  an  ordinary  way. 
There  have  been  ships,  however,  and  not  a  few,  which 
have  been  used  as  distinct  and  direct  agencies  in  the 
great  work  of  world  missions.  Who  could  forget  the 
John  Williams,  the  Camden,  the  Dayspring,  the  SoutJi- 
ern  CrosSy  names  that  are  mentors  of  the  fact  that  God 
lives?    Who  can  doubt  that  our  God  is  a  prayer-answer- 


78  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

ing  God,  or  that  the  Moravian  Brethren  who  sent  forth 
the  four  successive  vessels  called  Harmony  did  well  to 
put  trust  in  Him,  as  he  reads  the  strange  record  of  these 
vessels  during  one  hundred  years?  Literally,  in  the 
words  of  the  grandest  of  seamen's  hymns, 

"  *  From  rock  and  tempest,  fire  and  foe/ 

were  they  protected  in  their  difficult  work.  These  are 
but  a  few  of  many.  Then  add  to  these  the  vessels  of  the 
Mission  to  Deep  Sea  Fishermen,  together  with  that 
Greatheart  of  both  the  sick- ward  and  the  sea.  Dr.  Gren- 
fell,  and  whose  soul  is  not  stirred?  Could  one  but  have 
shared  the  experiences  of  those  who  sailed  in  these 
vessels,  how  'great  a  cloud  of  witnesses'  to  God's 
wondrous  power  to  guide,  protect  and  comfort  those 
who,  for  His  sake,  venture  into  unbeaten  ways  would  we 
have!" 

Yes,  a  Gospel  Ship  is  not  a  new  thing  under  the 
sun.  Among  the  islands  of  the  mid-Pacific,  on  the 
bleak  coasts  of  the  north  Atlantic,  along  the  sun- 
set shores  of  America,  on  the  great  rivers  of  Africa 
and  China,  the  word  of  truth  goes  forth  over  the 
face  of  the  waters.  If  some  one  should  write  us 
the  tale  of  the  Gospel  Navy  of  the  modern  world  it 
would  make  fine  reading,  a  breezy  chapter  of  the 
romance  of  missions.  But  for  the  whole  series  of 
island  groups  that  lie  off  the  coast  of  eastern  Asia, 
from  Kamschatka  to  the  tropics,  no  Gospel  Ship 
had  appeared  until  the  Fukuin  Maru  was  launched 
one  summer  day  in  the  Bay  of  Yedo.  The  writer, 
being  a  Blue-Kose,  seashore  bred,  with  an  inborn 
love  of  salt  water,  had  during  the  early  years  of 
his  life  in  Yokohama  dreamed  of  a  boat  with  sails 
and   oars, — it   being  before  the   days   of   motor- 


THE  LITTLE  WHITE  SHIP  79 

launclies, — in  wliich.  to  visit  the  villages  on  the 
shores  of  Yedo  Bay:  a  dream  that  faded  with  the 
increase  of  missionary  duties  nearer  home.  In 
recent  times  the  enterprising  independent  Omi 
Mission,  with  headquarters  at  Hachiman,  near  the 
famous  and  beautiful  Lake  Biwa,  the  Galilee  of 
Japan,  has  placed  a  Gospel  launch  on  the  waters  of 
that  lake.  The  boat  is  appropriately  named  the 
Garirai  Maru, — the  "Galilee,"  and  is  of  great 
service  in  the  mission  work  carried  on  in  the  vil- 
lages beside  the  lake. 

Two  years  after  Mrs.  Allan's  memorable  visit  to 
Kobe,  Mr.  Eobert  Allan  made  to  the  American 
Baptist  Missionary  Union,  through  Dr.  Thomson, 
an  offer  to  provide  means  for  the  building  of  the 
vessel  needed  for  the  evangelization  of  the  Inland 
Sea  Islanders.  Mr.  Allan  is  the  worthy  son  of  a 
worthy  mother,  and  his  splendid  gift  of  a  mission 
ship  is  but  one  proof  of  his  deep  interest  in  Chris- 
tian and  philanthropic  work,  as  the  people  of  the 
city  of  Glasgow  can  abundantly  testify.  And,  as 
we  shall  see  hereafter,  the  gift  of  the  ship  was  not 
the  last  proof  of  his  interest  in  the  Inland  Sea 
work.  It  goes  without  saying  that  the  Missionary 
Society  embraced  Mr.  Allan's  offer  of  a  Mission 
Ship  with  joy  and  thankfulness,  and  we  have  al- 
ready seen  Providence  preparing  the  man  who 
could  be  at  once  the  ship's  captain  and  the  mission- 
ary to  the  Islanders. 

It  was  May,  1898,  when  Captain  Bickel,  with 
his  wife  and  their  little  son  Philip,  arrived  in  Kobe. 
It  had  been  intended  that  while  the  vessel  should  be 
building  the  Captain  and  his  family  should  make 
their  home  at  Chofu,  a  mission  station  on  the  shore 


80  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

of  the  Inland  Sea,  near  Sliimonoseki.  It  was 
found,  hoAvever,  that  Yokohama  offered  the  best 
facilities  for  building,  and  after  making  a  pre- 
liminary survey  of  his  island  parish  that  was  to  be, 
and  spending  a  few  months  in  Kobe  in  the  study 
of  Japanese,  he  brought  his  family  up  to  the  north- 
ern port  and  made  his  home  there  until  the  vessel 
was  completed,  to  the  great  pleasure  and  profit  of 
all  the  members  of  our  Yokohama  station.  We  then 
first  made  the  acquaintance  of  Captain  and  Mrs. 
Bickel,  and  learned  to  love  them  for  their  own  sake, 
as  well  as  for  the  sake  of  the  work  they  had  come 
to  do.  Captain  Bickel's  mingled  modesty  and  man- 
liness, strength  and  gentleness;  his  deep  earnest 
piety  and  fine  Christian  sanity ;  his  friendly  spirit ; 
his  profound  seriousness  and  wholesome  sense 
of  humour;  his  breezy  sailor  manner  combined 
with  unfailing,  instinctive  courtesy,  won  all  our 
hearts. 

Meanwhile,  his  days  were  busy  with  the  superin- 
tending of  the  building  of  the  vessel  and  with  the 
study  of  the  Japanese  language.  Apart  from  the 
short  time  spent  at  Kobe,  these  brief  months, 
largely  filled  as  they  were  with  duties  connected 
with  the  work  on  the  ship,  gave  the  Captain  his 
only  opportunity  for  continuous  and  systematic 
study  of  the  language.  What  was  acquired  in  sub- 
sequent days  had  to  be  picked  up,  or  absorbed,  as 
best  it  might  amid  labours  of  brain  and  brawn 
that  more  than  demanded  all  available  time  and 
strength.  Missionary  recruits  in  Japan  to-day  are 
required  to  devote  their  first  three  years  mainly  to 
language  study,  following  a  carefully  prepared  cur- 
riculum under  expert  teachers,  and  are  to  be  con- 


THE  LITTLE  WHITE  SHIP  81 

gratulated  if  they  succeed  during  that  time  in 
becoming  somewhat  at  home  in  this  most  difficult 
tongue.  To  acquire,  without  such  hel]3S,  within  a 
year,  a  sufficient  use  of  the  language  to  manage  a 
Japanese  crew,  converse  with  Japanese  evangel- 
ists, and  hold  any  communication  with  Islanders 
who  knew  no  language  but  the  every-day  vernacu- 
lar, was  i)ossible  only  to  a  man  of  Captain  Bickel's 
ability.  He  must  have  had  a  natural  taste  for,  and 
facility  in,  the  acquiring  of  languages,  as  in  addi- 
tion to  English  he  could  speak  German,  Dutch, 
French,  Spanish,  and  one  or  two  other  tongues. 
To  this  inborn  faculty  for  language,  and  to  the 
constant  contact  with  the  Japanese  people  into 
which  his  life  among  the  islands  brought  him,  he 
owed  the  somewhat  remarkable  fluency  wdth  which 
he  became  able  to  speak  their  tongue,  both  in  con- 
versation and  in  public  address. 

It  was  in  a  little  shipyard,  or  rather  a  rude 
ship-building  shed  at  Honmoku  Beach,  on  the  out- 
skirts of  Yokohama,  that  the  Little  White  Shiji 
came  into  being.  The  plans  had  been  furnished 
by  a  very  distinguished  ship's  architect  of  Glasgow, 
the  designer  of  the  famous  yacht  Valkyrie,  The 
building  of  the  ship  went  on  under  the  scrupulously 
careful  supervision  of  the  Captain  himself,  who  ex- 
amined every  bolt  and  timber,  but  the  actual  con- 
structor and  builder  was  an  experienced  foreign 
shipwright,  a  Mr.  Cook,  whom  Captain  Bickel  had 
discovered  in  Yokohama:  one  of  the  interesting 
personages  whom  fortune  brings  together  in  the 
foreign  community  of  that  city.  Mr.  Cook,  though 
not  a  man  to  be  painfully  concerned  for  the  souls 
of  the  benighted  heathen,  happened  to  have  a  ship- 


82  CAPTAIK  BIOKEL  ~ 

Wright's  love  for  a  clean  job,  and  put  honest  work 
and  sound  timber  into  the  little  vessel.  If  she  had 
been  intended  for  the  hunting  of  sea-otters  along 
the  wintry  Kuriles,  or  to  carry  whiskey  and  to- 
bacco to  the  southern  seas^  doubtless  he  would  have 
displayed  the  same  thoroughness.  Or  may  it  be 
that  under  an  assumed  indifference  to  the  mission- 
ary destination  of  the  vessel  there  was  a  half  un- 
conscious wish  to  serve  his  Maker  and  mankind  by 
putting  all  his  heart,  and  the  skill  won  during 
many  years  as  shipwright,  into  this  task  which 
Providence  had  brought  to  his  hand  in  life's  fading 
afternoon?  A  year  of  daily  association  with  so 
sincere  and  transparent  a  Christian,  so  manly  a 
missionary-mariner  as  our  Captain  Bickel,  might 
well  awaken  all  that  was  best  in  a  man's  heart. 
And  he  was  a  man  of  a  good  heart,  was  Shipwright 
Cook.  The  writer,  having  been  born  and  bred,  as 
aforesaid,  beside  the  salt  water,  and  with  an  abid- 
ing love  for  tar  and  oakum,  took  delight  in  wan- 
dering about  the  ship  as  it  gradually  rose  into  be- 
ing, and  cherishes  a  friendly  mxcmory  of  the  rugged 
old  ship-builder. 

The  contract  for  building  the  vessel  was  signed 
October  15th,  and  presently  the  Captain  was  able 
to  report  that  the  keel  had  been  laid,  and  that  the 
little  Honmoku  shipyard  was  alive  with  busy  men : 
the  little  sturdy,  quick-witted,  deft-fingered  Japa- 
nese ship-carpenters.  She  was  to  carry  a  precious 
cargo,  and  must  weather  many  a  wild  storm  upon 
dangerous  waters,  and  therefore  needed  to  be  as 
staunchly  built  as  choice  material  and  human  skill 
would  permit.  "  Strength,  utility  and  neatness 
were  alone  considered  in  building,  all  ornamenta- 


THE  LITTLE  WHITE  SHIP  83 

tion  being  avoided."  But  never  was  a  prettier 
sight  on  the  Four  Seas  of  Japan  than  this  dainty, 
lady-like  little  vessel,  with  her  fine  lines,  her  pure 
white  hull  and  sails,  and  everything  as  spick  and 
span  about  her  as  in  a  millionaire's  yacht.  Her 
very  simj)licity,  beauty  and  purity  made  her  a  part 
of  the  Gospel  of  the  fair  white  Christ,  whose  mes- 
sengers she  was  to  bear. 

The  best  available  materials  went  into  the  little 
ship.  All  timbers,  strakes  and  deadwoods  were  of 
the  best  hard  woods  that  grow  in  the  forests  of 
Japan,  including  the  beautiful  and  costly  heyaki, 
the  mahogany  of  Japan ;  while  decks  and  planking, 
and  her  larger  spars,  were  of  Oregon  pine,  the 
smaller  spars  being  of  hinokiy  another  valuable 
Japanese  wood.  The  hull  was  copper-fastened  and 
copper-sheathed.  From  stem  to  stern-post  she 
measured  seventy-five  feet,  with  a  length  over  all 
of  eighty-five,  and  was  seventeen  feet  in  the  beam, 
her  carrying  capacity  being  eighty-two  tons.  In  rig 
she  was  a  two-masted  fore-and-aft  schooner,  with 
fine  lofty  spars  and  a  splendid  spread  of  canvas 
when  under  full  sail.  She  was  registered  at 
Lloyds  with  the  highest  rating,  "  Star  Al,  10  years." 
The  'tween-decks  was  entirely  taken  up  with  cabins 
and  forecastle,  providing  accommodation  for  the 
missionary-captain  and  his  family,  as  well  as  for 
one  or  more  Japanese  evangelists  and  the  seven 
members  of  the  crew.  There  was  also  a  cozy  state- 
room for  an  occasional  guest,  and  to  be  a  guest  on 
the  vessel  for  a  few  days  or  a  few  weeks  was  some- 
thing to  be  long  anticipated  and  longer  remembered, 
with  pleasure. 

In  July,  1899,  the  vessel  was  ready  for  launch- 


84  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

ing.  The  sea  bottom  at  Homnoku  Beacli  stretclies 
out  shoal  and  flat.  In  the  days  when  Yedo  Bay 
was  the  usual  baptistry  for  the  Yokohama  Baptist 
Church,  the  administrator  of  the  ordinance  often 
had  to  lead  the  candidates  far  out  through  the 
shallow  water  to  find  depth  suffi.cient  for  baptizing ; 
and  a  cold  experience  it  was  wading  back  and  forth, 
in  winter  months,  with  a  bitter  wind  on  the  shal- 
lows. Even  at  high  tide  it  must  have  been  a  work 
of  toil  and  patience  to  get  the  vessel  afloat.  A  few 
weeks  sufficed  to  step  the  masts,  rig  the  shrouds, 
bend  the  sails,  and  put  everything  in  readiness  for 
her  maiden  voyage. 

On  September  13th  the  Dedicatory  Service  was 
held.  The  name  ^^  FuJcuin  Maru/'  which  was  to 
become  a  household  word  not  only  to  the  Islanders 
of  the  Inner  and  Outer  Seas,  but  to  multitudes  in 
America  and  other  lands,  was  the  happy  suggestion 
of  the  writer's  brother,  then  also  a  missionary  in 
Yokohama,  who,  with  the  born  love  of  a  Blue-Nose 
for  the  sea  and  all  that  sails  on  it,  had  been  deeply 
interested  in  the  construction  of  the  vessel.  It  is 
pronounced  Foo-Koo-een  Mah-roo,  with  the  last 
syllable,  too,  very  short  and  unaccented,  and  means 
"  The  Gospel,"  "  The  Glad  Tidings,"  or  the  "  Ship 
of  the  Good  News."  Truly  in  God's  good  provi- 
dence the  little  vessel  was  to  prove  a  bearer  of  glad 
tidings  to  many  a  dark  and  comfortless  heart. 

On  the  ship's  deck  that  day  were  gathered  not 
only  many  members  of  the  Baptist  Mission,  but 
representatives  of  other  missions  as  well.  In  de- 
scribing the  event  some  years  later  Captain  Bickel 
wrote :  "  One  friend  of  another  Mission  uncon- 
sciously foretold  the  facts  of  the  present  day  when 


Old  Fukuin  Mam  in  cove  at  Mi3'anoura,  Omi  Shima 


THE  LITTLE  WHITE  SHIP  85 

she  called  the  little  white  craft  ^  Our  Ship/  It  is 
indeed  '  our  ship/  in  the  highest  sense,  for  all  Chris- 
tians in  Japan,  and  it  gives  joy  to  the  hearts  of 
those  most  concerned,  to  have  abundant  proof  that 
the  results  of  the  vessel's  humble  efforts  are  not 
represented  by  the  converts  on  the  ship's  roll  alone, 
but  are  found  in  the  churches  of  other  denomina- 
tions, in  far-off  cities.'' 

The  Fukuin  Maru  meant  to  the  Inland  Sea  Mis- 
sion much  more  than  a  means  of  transportation. 
Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  impression 
she  was  fitted  to  make  on  the  minds  of  an  Island 
people,  familiar  with  marine  affairs,  by  her  beauty, 
her  neatness  and  purity,  the  absolute  order  that 
prevailed  on  her,  in  a  word  her  shipshapeness.  A 
dirty  and  slovenly  vessel  might  sail  through  the 
Island  channels,  but  could  not  sail  into  the  hearts 
of  the  Island  people.  Captain  BickeFs  passion 
for  system,  order,  and  neatness  made  it  sure  that 
the  little  white  ship  would  be  always  as  spick  and 
span  as  on  the  day  of  her  dedication.  It  meant 
something  to  the  success  of  the  work  that  the 
"  Jesus  Ship,"  which  was  to  be  to  the  Islanders  a 
representation  of  the  Christian  religion,  an  em- 
bodiment in  wood  and  canvas  of  the  spirit  of  the 
new  teaching,  came  to  them  w^ith  the  charm  of 
beauty  and  purity,  a  fitting  messenger  of  the  stain- 
less Christ,  the  One  altogether  lovely.  It  would 
be  well  if  not  only  every  mission  vessel,  but  every 
mission  building,  and  every  Christian  church  edi- 
fice, possessed  this  charm.  An  outsider  remarked 
of  a  certa,in  ill-sextoned  meeting-house,  "People 
could  hardly  have  clean  thoughts  in  such  a  dirty 
room,"  and  the  author  of  "  The  Builders  "  has  said, 


86  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

''Make  the  house  where  God  may  dwell 
Beautiful,  entire  and  clean.'' 

Such,  at  least,  was  the  Fukuin  Maru,  the  Bethel  of 
the  Inland  Sea,  whose  cabin  and  deck  were  to  be 
made  sacred  by  many  an  assembly  for  worshij)  and 
for  the  preaching  of  the  Word,  and  by  the  presence 
of  the  Lord ;  for  the  ship  was  a  Mission  Hall,  and  a 
House  of  Worship,  and  the  workshop  and  office  of 
the  mission  force.  Captain  Bickel,  after  speaking 
of  various  activities  of  the  ship,  adds : 

"  There  is  one  more  important  Mission  asset 
which  is  not  so  easily  understood.  It  is  the  in- 
fluence of  the  vessel  itself.  That  it  provides  a 
means  of  transportation  for  the  workers,  and  a 
place  in  which  to  find  rest  and  clean  food  after  the 
unsanitary  conditions  of  crowded  meetings  on 
shore,  is  in  itself  a  sufficient  justification  for  the 
vessel's  use.  But  this  is  far  from  being  all.  As 
the  ship  lies  at  anchor  or  passes  through  the  chan- 
nels, she  is  seen  and  is  well  known  to  the  peojDle  in 
the  villages  and  fields  and  woods  on  the  mountain- 
side. Keminding  them  of  the  last  meeting,  the  last 
Christian  newspaper,  or  the  last  personal  talk,  she 
preaches  a  perennial  wordless  sermon,  and  is  to 
them  a  token  of  the  love  and  self-denial  of  Chris- 
tian hearts.  The  ship  is,  moreover,  a  Christian 
home  brought  to  the  very  doors  of  thousands  of 
Christless  homes.  Just  think  what  w^ould  be  the 
added  power  in  the  hands  of  the  missionary  en- 
gaged in  country  work,  if  in  some  way,  instead  of 
putting  up  at  inns,  he  were  able  to  take  with  him 
his  home,  and,  inviting  into  it  thousands  of  those 
whom  he  meets,  could  let  them  feel  the  subtle  in- 
fluence of  a  Christian  home  life !  " 


THE  LITTLE  WHITE  SHIP  87 

Every  missionary  home,  indeed,  even  if  not  peri- 
patetic, is  for  its  neighbourhood  at  least  an  object 
lesson  in  true  religion.  How  ignorant  the  heathen 
are  of  what  a  true  home  should  be  may  be  illus- 
trated by  the  case  of  a  Japanese,  an  intelligent  and 
respectable  man,  who  was  having  a  friendly  chat 
with  a  missionary  in  one  of  those  up-country  hotels. 
Learning,  in  answer  to  his  courteous  inquiries 
about  the  missionary's  family,  that  they  were 
spending  some  years  in  the  home-land,  he  sym- 
pathized with  the  loneliness  the  missionary  must 
feel,  and  naively  added,  "  But  of  course  in  the 
meantime  you  have  taken  a  Japanese  wife."  He 
was  probably  familiar  with  the  reputation  of  non- 
Christian  foreigners  in  the  port  cities. 

Except  when  the  season  prevented,  Mrs.  Bickel 
and  the  children  accompanied  the  Captain  on  his 
mission  cruises.  The  utmost  use  was  made  of 
their  floating  home  to  promote  the  interests  of  the 
work.  Thousands,  many  thousands,  of  the  Island- 
ers, have  been  invited  into  that  home,  and  have 
drunk  tea  in  the  little  cabin,  which  was  dining- 
room,  sitting-room,  drawing-room,  music-room, 
work-room  and  chart-room,  as  well  as  chapel,  and 
have  curiously  examined  the  tiny  cabins  which 
served  as  bedrooms,  and  the  galley  which  must  be 
kitchenette  for  all  the  ship's  company.  Day  by 
day,  as  the  ship  shifted  her  anchorage  from  island 
to  island,  they  came  in  their  gray,  unpainted, 
weather-stained  boats,  from  the  neighbouring  vil- 
lages— officials,  teachers  and  doctors,  dignified  and 
well-dressed ;  farmers  and  fishermen  in  their  rough 
working  clothes;  and  a  rabble  of  women  and  chil- 
dren,  often   unclean   and   unkempt,   but   orderly 


88  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

enough  in  their  behaviour,  according  to  the  canons 
of  etiquette  recognized  on  the  Islands,  to  do  the 
"worshipful  seeing.''  Politely  welcomed  at  the 
hospitable  ladder,  the  front  door-step,  so  to  speak, 
they  enjoyed  a  personally  conducted  tour  of  the 
ship,  and  when  they  were  politely  f  arewelled  at  the 
ladder  again,  and  had  pushed  off  for  shore,  they 
took  with  them,  along  with  some  simple  tracts,  an 
admiration  for  the  neatness  and  the  many  con- 
veniences of  the  vessel,  and  an  appreciation  of  the 
kind  ways  of  the  tall  foreign  Captain  and  his  wife. 
Well  for  the  ship's  company  if  nothing  undesirable 
was  left  behind,  for  many  of  the  Islanders  are  in 
their  own  persons  the  happy  hunting  ground,  or 
rather  pasture,  of  certain  little  beasties  which  are 
not  mentioned  in  polite  conversation.  The  lady  of 
the  ship  would  have  been  more  than  human,  would 
have  been  lacking  indeed  in  housewifely  and 
motherly  instincts,  had  she  not  sometimes  inwardly 
protested  against  the  daily  invasion,  and  frequent 
pollution,  of  her  little  home;  and  it  must  have 
needed  constant  fresh  supplies  of  grace,  to  be  will- 
ing, for  the  sake  of  the  cause,  to  meet  each  new 
group  with  a  smile  of  welcome.  There  was  true 
heroism  in  this  for  one  of  womanly  tastes,  reared 
in  an  English  home.  It  was  taking  up  the  cross 
daily. 

Such,  then,  was  the  Little  White  Ship,  and  such, 
in  part,  was  the  function  she  was  to  fulfill  in  the 
making  known  of  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God  to 
the  Island  Folk,  on  that  fair  afternoon  in  Sep- 
tember, when  a  little  company  of  missionaries  and 
Japanese  Christians  stood  on  her  deck,  and  com- 
mitted her  to  the  keeping  and  blessing  of  God. 


THE  LITTLE  WHITE  SHIP  89 

A  little  ship  puts  out  to  sea ; 
A  precious  burthen  she  doth  bear. 
'^Now  God,''  I  pray,  "be  good  to  me, 
My  heart  goes  sailing  there. ' ' 

A  little  ship  she  sails  the  sea ; 
I  follow,  follow  with  my  prayer. 
''May  God,"  I  pray,  *'be  good  to  me, 
My  heart  goes  sailing  there." 

A  little  ship  is  far  at  sea ; 

The  storm  grows  wild,  the  night  falls  drear. 
''Dear  Lord,"  I  pray,  "be  good  to  me, 
My  heart  goes  sailing  there." 

The  little  ship  hath  crossed  the  sea; 
I  give  God  thanks  with  heart  sincere. 
' '  Thou  hast  been  good,  dear  God,  to  me, 
My  heart  went  sailing  there. ' ' 


VI 

HER  MAIDEN  VOYAGE 

TWO  bells,  of  the  morning  watch.  Fuji, 
the  Sacred  Mountain,  stands  bathed  in 
purple  dawn,  looking  down  across  the 
Hakon^  Hills  upon  the  silver  stretches  of  Tokyo 
Bay.  In  Yokohama  Harbour  sampans  and  lighters 
are  pushing  off  from  the  wharves  to  begin  the  day's 
business.  Flocks  of  white  gulls  are  flying  lazily 
over  the  waters,  looking  for  breakfast.  Off  toward 
east  and  south  are  the  white-sailed  sakana-hune  of 
the  fisher-lads  of  Negishi,  also  out  looking  for 
breakfast. 

Two  bells,  of  the  morning  watch.  It  sounds  out 
from  a  score  of  ocean-going  steamers,  hailing  from 
every  part  of  the  world,  which  are  moored  in  the 
inner  harbour.  On  the  Fiikuin  Maru^  too,  lying  be- 
yond the  breakwater,  the  two  bells  strikes,  sweet 
and  clear,  like  a  cheerful  good-bye  to  the  friends  on 
shore.  On  her  deck  the  sailors,  looking  very  trim 
in  their  new  white  uniforms,  are  hoisting  sail  and 
anchor,  adding  their  strong  chanty  to  the  noise  of 
ropes  and  chains.  The  Little  White  Ship  is  start- 
ing on  her  maiden  voyage. 

The  Gleaner y  the  motor-launch  of  the  Mission  to 
Seamen,  has  come  out  from  her  moorings  at  the 
foot  of  Main  Street  to  see  her  younger  and  fairer 
sister  in  Gospel  work  safely  off,  and  having  given 

90 


HER  MAIDEN  VOYAGE  91 

her  a  friendly  tow  down  tlie  Bay  as  far  as  tlie 
light-ship,  bids  her  Godspeed  and  returns,  while 
the  Fukuin  Maru  plmnes  her  white  wings  and 
shapes  her  course  for  the  open  water.  Her  destina- 
tion is  the  port  of  Hiogo,  which  adjoins  Kobe,  at 
the  eastern  end  of  the  Inland  Sea. 

Her  first  voyage  was  to  be  an  exciting  one,  be- 
cause of  a  typhoon  into  whose  fringe  she  ran  off 
the  wild  coast  of  Kii.  Let  us  have  the  story  in  the 
Captain's  own  words : 

"  It  was  a  bad  time  of  year,  and  the  barometer 
began  to  fall  after  we  left,  but  we  had  a  good  run 
down  the  gulf  and  round  the  coast  into  the  Kii 
Channel.  We  made  sometimes  five  miles,  some- 
times twelve,  per  hour.  We  ran  neck  and  neck  on 
the  Tuesday  morning  with  the  steamer  Otaru  Maru 
for  several  hours.  We  averaged  '  to  the  good  '  nine 
miles  an  hour  until  within  fifty  miles  of  Kobe,  with 
a  fair  prospect  of  getting  in  on  Tuesday  evening, 
when  it  began  to  blow  and  the  sea  rose.  Well,  the 
upshot  of  it  was  that  I  spent  five  days  over  the 
other  fifty  miles,  and  days  of  hard  work.  We  had 
three  struggles  during  that  time,  beat  up  into  the 
Gulf  of  Osalva  three  times,  and  had  to  run  out 
before  a  gale  as  many  times.  The  last  gale  was 
very  heavy,  and  after  twelve  hours  of  hard  beating 
and  straining  to  keep  my  ground  I  had  to  give  in 
and  run  out  through  the  Tennis  Straits  again 
in  the  night.  It  thundered,  it  rained,  it  fairly 
howled,  and  the  sea  ran  high,  and  by  flashes  of 
vivid  lightning  I  picked  my  way  through  the  pas- 
sage. It  was  a  grand  sight  though,  and  all  through 
the  vessel  behaved  splendidly.  Twice  during  those 
five  days  I  had  to  beat  off  a  lee  shore,  and  once 


92  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

drifted  down  to  within  ten  feet  of  a  rock  bed  in  a 
dead  calm.  When  we  got  into  Hiogo  Bay,  and  I 
got  my  clothes  off  and  into  bed  for  the  first  time  in 
a  week,  I  could  not  help  feeling  grateful  for  the 
experience.  After  a  few  hours'  rest  I  got  up  hale 
and  hearty,  and  congratulated  myself  on  having 
had  it  out  with  the  young  lady  at  the  very  outset 
and  once  for  all," 

Thus  far  the  Captain's  log.  Many  a  day  in  the 
years  that  followed,  when  typhoon  gales  have  swei3t 
the  Island  shores,  or  on  wild  and  rainy  nights  when 
difficult  and  dangerous  channels,  unlighted  and  un- 
charted, had  to  be  navigated,  was  there  like  need 
of  utmost  alertness  and  endurance  of  mind  and 
body. 

The  difficulty  of  the  voyage  from  Yokohama  to 
Hiogo,  and  of  all  the  early  navigating  of  the  vessel, 
was  much  enhanced  by  the  inexperience  and  un- 
reliability of  the  crew.  Perhaps  few,  if  any,  of 
them  had  ever  helped  to  handle  a  foreign  style  sail- 
ing ship,  or  had  much  idea  of  foreign  methods  of 
navigation.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that  the  Cap- 
tain's knowledge  of  Japanese  was  yet  fragmentary, 
while  his  crew  had  no  use  of  English  except  of  such 
nautical  terms  as  had  been  naturalized.  This 
would  make  communication  between  the  skipper 
and  his  crew  very  laborious.  The  men  would 
lack,  too,  that  experience  of  strict  discipline,  and 
that  habit  of  instant  obedience  to  orders,  which 
would  be  a  matter  of  course  with  a  British  crew. 
The  Captain  would  need  to  forestall  and  supple- 
ment the  deficiency  of  the  men  at  every  turn.  To 
bring  a  little  sailing  craft  through  a  typhoon 
storm,  past  a  dangerous  coast,  with  a  raw  crew, 


HEE  MAIDEN  VOYAGE  93 

seems  a  veritable  feat  of  seamansliip.  The  Cap- 
tain used  to  remark,  in  recounting  the  adventures 
of  this  voyage,  that  he  could  not  repress  a  smile 
when  he  recalled  the  well-meant  advice  of  the  Mis- 
sion Board  to  lay  the  burden  of  navigation  chiefly 
on  the  crew,  reserving  his  own  strength  for  more 
spiritual  service;  and  would  add  that  unless  the 
seagoing  part  of  the  Japanese  people  were  made 
over  in  mind,  soul  and  body,  he  feared  it  would  be 
a  long  day  before  he  would  be  able  to  follow  that 
advice.  How  there  came  a  day  when  the  Japanese 
mariners  who  manned  the  Little  White  Ship  had 
become  all  that  the  skipper  could  have  desired,  and 
more  than  he  could  have  dared  to  hope,  will  be 
told  in  the  ax)propriate  place. 

Besides  the  Captain  and  the  seven  sailors  who 
formed  his  crew,  there  was  one  passenger  who  made 
this  tempestuous  voyage :  the  single  evangelist  with 
whom  the  Captain  planned  to  begin  his  work,  and 
who  had  been  commended  to  his  tender  mercies  at 
Yokohama.  What  this  poor  fellow,  a  mere  land- 
lubber and  no  hardy  salt,  endured  during  those 
wild  days  and  nights  off  the  coast  of  Kii,  we  will 
not  attempt  to  portray. 


VII 

IN  HIOGO  BAY  ^ 

TO  bring  the  FuJcuin  Maru  to  port  at  Hiogo 
was  one  tiling ;  to  weigh  anchor  again  and 
sail  off  down  to  the  Islands  was  a  different 
story.  It  was  not  an  easy  matter  to  secure  from 
the  Japanese  Imperial  Government  permission  to 
move  about  at  will  in  what  was  properly  a  mare 
clausum.  The  ocean  liners  were  indeed  allowed, 
under  proper  pilotage,  to  traverse  these  closed 
waters  between  Kobe  and  Moji,  on  the  appointed 
tracks ;  but  it  was  another  matter  to  permit  a  for- 
eign vessel,  owned  by  a  foreign  Society,  flying  a 
foreign  flag,  and  under  a  foreign  skipper,  to  sail 
those  waters  at  will.  One  of  the  great  naval  bases, 
also,  that  of  Kure,  is  located  here,  and  there  are 
other  points  of  military  importance.  Might  not  a 
foreign  captain  abuse  the  privilege  of  free  naviga- 
tion, and  quietly  collect  information  of  military 
value,  to  be  employed,  in  case  of  war,  against 
Japan? 

Captain  Bickel  had  duly  sent  in  his  application 
for  a  sailing  permit,  through  Colonel  Buck,  the 
United  States  minister,  and  Colonel  Buck  had  for- 
warded it  to  the  Japanese  Foreign  Office.  After 
the  lapse  of  a  fortnight  word  came  that  matters  of 
this  kind  must  be  referred  to  the  Minister  of  Com- 

94 


IN  HIOGO  BAY  95 

munication.  A  fresh,  application  was  accordingly 
made  out  and  forwarded  as  advised.  Another  fort- 
night passed.  Then  came  word  that  the  applica- 
tion was  couched  in  too  general  terms,  and  that 
every  place  which  it  was  intended  the  ship  should 
visit  must  be  specified  by  name.  As  this  meant 
practically  every  inhabited  island  and  every  sea- 
side village  in  the  Inland  Sea,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
outlying  island  groups,  it  required  considerable 
time  to  compile  the  list.  The  new  application,  with 
its  formidable  queue  of  names,  was  sent  in,  and 
Captain  Bickel  had  a  farther  period  in  which  to 
practice  the  virtue  of  patience.  In  the  meantime 
he  went  up  to  Tokyo  and  passed  an  examination 
for  captain's  certificate  before  the  proper  Japanese 
authorities,  so  that  if  the  govermnent  should  ob- 
ject to  a  ship  under  a  foreign  flag  having  the  free- 
dom of  the  Inland  Sea  he  could  sail  her  under  the 
Japanese  flag. 

It  would  have  been  some  sacrifice  to  him  to  haul 
down  ''  Old  Glory,''  and  run  up  the  Sun  Banner  in 
its  stead,  for  he  was  American  born  and  bred,  and 
a  true  iimerican  at  heart  in  his  democratic  and 
cosmopolitan  ideas;  but  for  the  sake  of  tlie  work 
even  "  Old  Glory  "  would  have  to  go.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  it  was  the  Captain's  idea  that  because  of  the 
peculiarly  friendly  relations  which  had  always  ex- 
isted between  the  United  States  and  Japan,  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  at  her  masthead  would  be  a 
happy  introduction  for  her  to  the  Island  villages; 
and  on  the  other  hand  he  hoped  that  the  ministry 
of  mercy  and  good-will  which  the  vessel  was  to  ac- 
complish would  add  something  to  the  kindly  feel- 
ing of  the  Japanese  for  the  American  people. 


96  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

One  of  the  bj-products  of  missionary  work  is  the 
lessening  of  friction  between  western  and  eastern 
nations.  Every  missionary  is  an  ambassador  of 
peace,  civil  as  well  as  spiritual.  His  j)robity,  kind- 
liness and  helpfulness  heal  the  wounds  which  the 
haughtiness,  selfishness  and  greed  of  too  many 
foreign  traders  and  offi.cials  have  inflicted.  His 
little  company  of  friends  and  disciples  have  learned 
to  love  him,  and  some  of  that  love  is  extended  even 
to  the  country  from  which  he  has  come.  If  peace 
and  good-will  are  to  continue  between  Japan  and 
America,  as  is  devoutly  to  be  wished,  it  will  be  due 
in  part  to  the  many  hundreds  of  American  mis- 
sionaries scattered  over  the  Empire,  each  con- 
stantly and  unconsciously  "  taking  up  the  shock  " 
of  every  untoward  impact  of  America  upon  Japan. 
It  would  be  easy  to  show  that  the  influence  of  the 
work  of  the  Fukuin  Maru  in  this  respect  has  been 
very  great,  not  only  among  the  Islanders  but  in 
the  Empire  at  large,  so  great  indeed,  that  this  alone 
would  repay  all  the  expense  of  the  undertaking. 
Not  more  war-ships,  nor  wiser  diplomacy,  but  more 
lavish  missionary  effort,  is  the  solution  of  the 
question  how  to  keep  the  peace  between  East  and 
West. 

Another  reason  for  sailing  the  Mission  Ship  un- 
der the  American  flag  would  be  the  warmer  place 
this  would  give  her  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  sup- 
ported her  work.  While  the  ship  herself  was  the 
gift  of  a  Scottish  ship-owner,  her  sailing  expenses, 
and  the  cost  of  the  work  generally,  had  to  come 
from  the  hands  of  Americans,  the  money  being 
largely  contributed  by  the  Sunday  schools.  The 
romance  of  the  Inland  Sea  Mission  appealed  to  the 


IN  HIOGO  BAT  97 

boys  and  girls,  and  they  took  a  livelier  interest  in 
the  ship  because  she  flew  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

While  the  Fukuin  Maru  tugged  at  her  moorings 
in  Hiogo  Bay,  impatient  to  be  off,  Captain  Bickel 
and  the  Japanese  evangelist  who  had  shipped  with 
him  were  by  no  means  idle.  The  anchorage  at 
Hiogo  is  a  regular  rendezvous  for  Inland  Sea  sail- 
ing vessels,  and  this  was  made  avail  of  to  scatter 
the  first  handf uls  of  Gospel  seed  upon  the  waters, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  advertise  the  ship  and  its 
purpose  among  those  to  whom  she  was  to  go.  "  We 
are  holding  meetings  on  board,"  wrote  the  Cap- 
tain at  this  time,  "  for  the  crews  of  these  vessels, 
going  to  them  beforehand  and  giving  them  a  per- 
sonal invitation.  We  tell  them  of  the  purpose  of 
the  vessel,  and  if  they  cannot  come  on  board  now  to 
look  out  for  us  down  among  the  Islands.  To  most 
of  the  men  the  whole  subject  of  Christianity  and 
the  motive  underlying  our  action  seem  to  be  new, 
and  the  motive  gives  food  for  thought.  By  visiting 
half  a  dozen  junks  and  schooners  during  the  day, 
all  of  which  are  within  hailing  distance,  I  can  get 
enough  hearers  for  the  evening  to  fill  the  little 
cabin,  say  twenty  or  thirty,  and  as  these  vessels 
come  and  go  continually  we  get  a  fresh  lot  of  men. 
Coming  as  they  do  to  us  as  our  guests,  as  it  were, 
we  have  a  great  advantage  in  maintaining  proper 
order." 

So  presently  there  were  scores  of  native  craft  of 
various  kinds  of  rig  beating  up  and  down  among 
the  Islands,  carrying  word  to  their  home  harbours 
or  to  whatever  ports  they  happened  to  touch  at, 
of  a  little  white  American  vessel  lying  down  east 
at  Hiogo,  with  a  tall  foreign  skipper  and  a  Japanese 


98  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

crew,  which  vessel  was  about  to  come  down  among 
the  Islands  to  teach  the  people  about  Yaso  and  the 
foreigners^  God.  At  least  that  was  what  was  pre- 
tended. What  mischief  she  might  really  be  up  to 
no  one  could  tell,  and  it  was  rather  strange  that 
the  Honourable  Government  of  Great  Japan  should 
permit  her  to  come  to  the  Islands  at  all.  For  all 
anybody  knew  she  might  be  spying  for  Eussia, 
Japan's  traditional  enemy,  for  all  she  had  the 
American  flag  flying.  The  captain  was  a  fierce 
looking  man,  dressed  in  a  uniform,  and  more  like  a 
soldier  than  a  priest.  And,  anyway,  the  Islanders 
had  more  religion  than  they  knew  what  to  do  with, 
already,  what  with  the  good  old-fashioned  home- 
made Shinto,  and  the  teachings  of  Confucius  from 
China,  and  of  Buddha  from  India.  It  was  quite 
too  much  to  have  a  new-fangled  religion,  of  an 
American  god,  thrust  upon  them.  But  the  vessel 
would  be  down  along  by  and  by,  and  they  could 
hear  for  themselves. 

After  lying  at  anchor  for  about  ten  weeks  the 
coveted  permit  arrived,  duly  signed  and  sealed. 
It  happened  to  be  the  American  Thanksgiving 
Day,  and  was  doubly  a  Thanksgiving  Day  to  the 
skipper  of  the  little  ship  because  he  held  the 
precious  document  safe  in  his  hand.  According  to 
its  terms  the  vessel,  flying  the  American  flag,  might 
navigate  freely  the  Inland  Sea,  outside  of  certain 
fortified  areas,  and  visit  at  will  the  appended  list 
of  places.  At  the  same  time,  or  soon  afterward, 
the  Department  of  Communication  took  a  step 
which  did  not  become  known  to  Captain  Bickel 
until  later,  but  which  proved  of  comfort  and  help  to 
him  in  the  early  years  of  his  work.     Communica- 


IN  HIOGO  BAY  99 

tions  were  sent  out  from  tlie  Department  to  police 
and  other  officials  at  the  places  mentioned  in  the 
ship^s  permit,  advising  them  of  the  purpose  of  the 
little  vessel,  and  requiring  them  to  afford  the  Cap- 
tain such  help  and  protection  as  circumstances 
might  call  for.  This  was  doubtless  intended  rather 
as  an  act  of  courtesy  to  the  American  Government 
than  as  a  sign  of  approval  of  Christianity;  but  it 
at  least  served  to  give  the  Captain  and  his  ship  a 
favourable  introduction  to  those  in  authority  on  the 
Islands. 

On  December  2,  1899,  the  blue  peter  was  run 
up,  the  anchor  brought  home,  and  the  sails  sjDread 
for  the  Harima  Nada,  among  the  islands  of  which 
the  Little  White  Ship  was  to  make  her  first  mission 
cruise. 


VIII 
THE   PLAN  OF   CAMPAIGN 

WHEN  the  FuJcuin  Maru  cleared  from 
Hiogo  Harbour  that  memorable  Decem- 
ber day,  her  sole  visible  cargo  was  a 
good  stock  of  Bibles,  Scripture  portions,  tracts  and 
other  Christian  literature,  ammunition  for  her 
campaign  among  the  Islands,  snugly  stored  away 
in  the  lockers  in  the  Captain's  cabin,  which  lockers 
were  also  the  chairs,  sofas  and  lounges  for  the 
Captain  and  his  family.  On  the  cabin  table  lay 
spread  charts  of  the  Inland  Sea  waters,  prepared 
by  the  Japanese  Admiralty,  not  so  complete  nor  so 
accurate  as  might  have  been  desired,  but  still  in- 
dispensable. And  somewhere  on  board,  perhaps 
only  in  the  Captain's  heart,  and  not  yet  set  down 
in  black  and  white,  was  the  Plan  of  Campaign, 
which  had  a  vital  connection  with  these  same  ad- 
miralty charts,  or  rather  with  the  Inland  Sea 
geography  and  hydrography  which  the  charts  dis- 
played. 

During  the  year  and  a  half  that  had  elapsed 
since  he  had  first  set  foot  on  Japanese  soil,  Cap- 
tain Bickel  had  been  making  a  study  of  the  whole 
situation  that  faced  him  in  his  wide  parish,  and 
determining  the  principles  which  should  govern 

100 


THE  PLAN  OF  CAMPAIGN  101 

his  "work.  In  this  lies  one  cause  of  the  success  that 
has  crowned  that  work.  There  has  been  no 
"muddling  through"  in  the  Inland  Sea  Mission. 
It  has  been  a  campaign  with  a  plan,  a  carefully 
thought  out  and  well  digested  plan,  reasonable, 
elastic,  workable,  and  pursued  with  unfaltering 
fidelity,  and  has  thus  been  in  fine  contrast  to  the 
happy-go-lucky,  hit-or-miss,  zeal-without-knowledge 
kind  of  work  with  which  too  many  of  us  whose 
fields  are  on  the  mainland  have  contented  ourselves. 
The  orderly,  systematic  and  thorough  methods  of 
the  Inland  Sea  enterprise  have  made  it  a  good  ob- 
ject lesson  for  those  who  are  undertaking  the  evan- 
gelization of  the  rural  districts. 

By  this  we  do  not  mean  to  say  that  Captain 
Bickel  sailed  out  of  Hiogo  Bay  with  a  detailed  and 
complicated  cast-iron  system  of  rules  and  methods 
to  which  all  the  activities  of  the  vessel  must  be 
conformed.  He  had  far  too  much  hard  horse  sense 
to  commit  any  such  folly.  What  he  did  have  was 
a  broad  outline  to  be  filled  out  as  circumstances 
should  need  and  experience  should  guide.  "  He 
came  with  simple  principles :  that  he  w^as  entrusted 
by  God  with  a  message  for  this  people ;  that  he  was 
to  go  to  unoccupied  fields  only;  that  his  message 
was  for  all  the  people,  not  for  classes;  and  that 
every  Christian  should  be  a  worker."  There  is 
nothing  out  of  the  ordinary,  in  missionary  work, 
in  these  principles,  thus  expressed.  Except  per- 
haps for  the  second,  they  are  the  commonplaces  of 
mission  policy.  What  is  noteworthy  is  that  Cap- 
tain Bickel  took  these  general  principles,  applied 
them  to  the  circumstances  of  his  parish,  and  set 
them  down,  in  terms  suited  to  those  circumstances, 


102  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

as  the  outline  of  his  method  of  campaign,  and  held 
to  that  outline,  filling  in  the  details  of  course  as 
need  arose,  through  all  the  nineteen  years  of  his 
work.  That  he  attached  great  importance  to  this 
outline,  and  great  importance  to  method  and  sys- 
tem in  the  prosecution  of  his  mission  is  abundantly 
evident  from  his  writings. 

The  method  of  the  Inland  Sea  Enterprise,  and 
the  striking  success  of  that  method  thoroughly  and 
persistently  applied,  afford  to  all  engaged  in  rural 
evangelism  a  valuable  suggestion  and  stimulus,  and 
this  is  one  of  the  most  important  by-products  of  the 
Fukuin  Maru  Mission.  It  is  this,  together  with 
the  splendid  example  of  consecration  and  devotion 
which  Captain  BickeFs  missionary  activities  dis- 
played, which  has  widened  his  influence  from  the 
scattered  islands  of  the  Inland  Sea  to  the  utmost 
bounds  of  the  Mikado's  Empire,  and  beyond,  into 
other  mission  fields.  In  a  very  large  sense  he  was 
not  only  Captain  Bickel  of  the  Inland  Sea,  but 
Captain  Bickel  of  Japan. 

Stated  in  Captain  BickeFs  own  words  Ms  mission 
strategy  was  as  follows : 

1.  We  will  never  go  to  any  place  in  which  any  one 
of  any  denomination  has  any  work.  The  work  shall  all 
be  advance  work. 

2.  We  will  go  to  every  place  on  every  island,  and 
persist  in  Christian  effort  until  by  general  consent  of  the 
people  the  vessel  and  its  message  are  welcome. 

3.  While  giving  honour  to  whom  honour  is  due  we 
will  bear  in  mind  at  all  times  that  the  Gospel  is  for  all 
men  alike,  irrespective  of  class  distinctions. 

4.  After  ensuring  a  welcome,  to  divide  the  islands 
into  groups.     Stationing  an  evangelist  in  each  group, 


THE  PLAN  OF  CAMPAIGN  103 

make  him  responsible  for  all  work  carried  on  in  his 
group. 

5.  To  insist  that  the  number  of  paid  workers  in  a 
given  district  be  limited,  and  upon  the  duty  of  every 
believer  to  bear  a  share  in  the  work  of  spreading  the 
Gospel  by  personal  activity  of  some  kind. 


Such  was  the  plan  of  campaign,  to  cover  many 
strenuous  years,  with  which  the  Fukuin  Maru  be- 
gan her  first  cruise  in  the  Inland  Sea. 

It  may  be  permitted,  however,  before  taking  up 
the  thread  of  our  narrative,  to  call  attention  to  one 
or  two  special  features  of  the  work  as  it  was  after- 
ward actually  carried  on.  One  of  these  was  the 
emphasis  laid  upon  the  orderly,  progressive,  sys- 
tematic presentation  of  Christian  truth  to  the  peo- 
ple of  each  village  on  the  ship's  visiting  list. 
"  The  addresses  at  the  public  meetings  are  all  care- 
fully planned  and  systematized,  one,  two,  three. 
The  literature  is  carefully  selected  and  graded, 
one,  two,  three  again."  Even  the  Scriptures  were 
not  to  be  circulated  generally  till  the  people  had 
been  sufficiently  instructed  to  read  them  with  in- 
telligence and  profit.  In  fact  the  audience  in  each 
village  was  to  be  a  big  class  in  Christian  doctrine, 
meeting  infrequently  indeed  but  making  steady 
progress  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Way  of  Life  from 
year  to  year. 

Another  notable  feature  has  been  the  attention 
paid  to  the  conservation  of  results.  What  is  gained 
i«  gained  by  hard,  hard  work,  and  must  be  held  at 
all  costs.  If  a  village  is  persuaded  to  open  its 
doors  to  the  Teaching  those  doors  must  never  be 
allowed  to  shut.    If  a  man  "begins  to  show  interest 


104  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

in  the  Gospel  story  he  must  never  be  lost  sight  of 
until  he  is  added  to  the  number  of  those  who  be- 
lieve. When  a  believer  is  gained  it  is  considered 
as  important  to  hold  him  as  to  secure  a  new  recruit. 
System,  thoroughness,  perseverance,  conservation, 
these  were  the  words  that  on  the  human  side  were 
to  govern  the  activities  of  the  little  vessel. 

[Note.  For  the  benefit  of  missionary  readers,  and  of 
others  interested  in  methods  of  foreign  mission  work,  it 
may  be  m.entioned  that  Captain  Bickel  has  set  forth  in 
detail  his  Plan  of  Campaign  in  an  address  before  a  com- 
pany of  missionaries  and  other  Christian  workers  at 
Karuizawa,  on  "Rural  Evangelization,"  and  in  various 
writings.  These  may  be  found  in  the  Christian  Move- 
ment in  Japan,  the  Japan  Evangelist,  and  other  mission- 
ary publications.] 


IX 

A  VOYAGE  OF  DISCOVERY 

WHEN  Captain  Bickel  stood  under  the 
blue  peter  on  tlie  morning  of  the  second 
day  of  December,  1899,  and  gave  orders 
to  hoist  anchor  and  sails  for  the  first  mission  cruise 
in  the  Inland  Sea,  it  was  with  no  rosy  anticipations 
of  immediate  success.  "  I  will  work  day  and  night, 
as  God  may  give  me  strength,  for  ten  years  with- 
out looking  for  visible  results,''  he  wrote  at  that 
time  to  the  Home  Board.  And,  indeed,  the  field 
being  what  it  was,  and  the  plan  of  work  so  far 
reaching  as  it  was,  it  showed  optimism  to  expect 
results  so  early.  In  the  chapters  upon  the  Inland 
Sea  and  the  Island  Folk  some  idea  has  been  given 
of  the  difftculties  that  had  to  be  encountered,  due 
both  to  the  physical  nature  of  the  territory  to  be 
occupied,  and  to  the  mental  and  moral  condition 
of  the  people.  After  describing  some  of  these  dif- 
ficulties, in  an  article  from  which  paragraphs  are 
there  quoted.  Captain  Bickel  adds : 

"Such  then  was  the  field  to  which  the  little 
Mission  Ship  went.  Is  it  so  great  wonder  that  the 
writer,  upon  whom  lay  the  burden  of  the  going  and 
doing,  shrank  from  his  task?  A  strange  language, 
a  strange  people,  an  unknown  and  difficult  sea  to 

105 


106  OAPTAm  BICKEL 

navigate  almost  entirely  without  guiding  lights, 
and  wholly  without  a  pilot, — for  none  has  ever 
been  used, — no  knowledge  of  the  Islands,  much 
less  of  where  and  how  many  were  the  villages  upon 
them,  not  knowing  a  single  soul  in  any  of  them, 
where  to  begin  and  what  method  to  adoj)t,  was 
indeed  a  problem." 

In  another  article,  published  in  1911,  speaking 
retrospectively  of  the  entrance  of  the  Fukuin  Maru 
upon  her  field  of  labour,  he  says : 

"  There  was  nothing  but  a  little  white  ship  pick- 
ing her  way  among  the  islands  at  the  eastern  end 
of  the  Inland  Sea.  The  night  was  dark,  very  dark, 
as  she  crawled  up  under  the  still  darker  shadow  of 
a  high  mountain  and  dropped  anchor.  Not  only 
was  the  night  dark,  but  the  prospects  before  us 
were  darker  still.  The  difficulties  seemed  as  high 
as  the  high  mountain  under  which  the  little  ship 
lixjy  and  truly  they  were.  I  was  among  a  strange 
people  of  whose  language  I  did  not  know  enough  to 
ask  for  bread  and  butter,  had  there  been  any,  which 
there  was  not.  The  islands,  the  towns  and  vil- 
lages, the  mountain  paths,  the  channels  and  sweep- 
ing tides,  the  rocks  and  shoals  and  winds,  all  these 
were  unknown,  untried.  But  above  all,  not  a  soul 
did  I  know  in  this  wide  stretch  of  islands,  the 
hearts  of  whose  hundreds  of  thousands  I  had  been 
sent  to  try  to  reach.  So  the  night  was  dark  in- 
deed, and  the  misgivings  of  your  old  sailor  friend 
made  it  seem  darker  still.'^ 

The  mere  secular  side  of  the  work, — the  sailing 
of  the  vessel  in  new  and  difficult  waters;  the  han- 
dling of  the  Japanese  crew — every  man-jack  of 
them  an  incontrovertible  proof  of  the  doctrine  of 


A  VOYAGE  OF  DISCO YEEY  107 

total  depravity,  and  yet  to  be  treated  with  that 
urbanity  and  deference  which  Yamato-Damashii, 
the  Soul-of -Japan,  expects  of  every  respectable  for- 
eigner; the  hard  bone  labour  on  shore,  tramping 
the  mountain  paths,  thousands  of  miles  of  them  in 
the  aggregate,  from  village  to  village;  the  fre- 
quently tedious  search  for  a  house  where  meetings 
might  be  held,  and  the  laborious  advertising  of 
these  meetings  by  word  of  mouth  from  door  to 
door, — would  have  been  suf6.cient  exercise  for  one 
husky  man.  And  upon  this,  like  Ossa  piled  on 
Pelion,  was  the  tremendous  load  of  the  spiritual 
part  of  the  campaign,  the  responsibility  for  a  mil- 
lion and  a  half  of  people,  intellectually  depressed, 
superstitious,  morally  inert,  stubbornly  conserva- 
tive, hostile  to  or  suspicious  of  the  Captain  and  all 
his  works,  dwelling  in  a  thousand  scattered  vil- 
lages that  must  be  besieged  and  captured  one  by 
one,  and  all  these  to  be  found  and  won  and  led  and 
fed,  and  for  it  all  just  one  little  white  schooner 
picldng  her  way  painfully  from  island  to  island, 
and  pacing  her  deck  a  restless  stranger  from  the 
West,  who  must  be  both  skipper  and  missionary. 
Well,  yes,  and  there  was  God.  The  Captain  hap- 
pened to  know  this,  and  that  saved  the  situation. 

"  Ten  years  without  visible  results,  if  God  will," 
said  the  Captain  in  his  heart,  as  the  little  white 
schooner  rounded  the  northern  end  of  Awaji,  and 
stood  away  across  the  Harima  Nada  for  the  first 
island  on  the  ship's  visiting  list.  It  was,  as  al- 
ready intimated,  not  merely  the  difficulties  of  the 
field,  but  also  the  plan  of  campaign  adopted,  that 
broad  comprehensive  scheme  outlined  in  the  previ- 
ous chapter,  which  led  him  to  set  so  distant  a  date. 


108  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

It  would  have  been,  hmnanly  speaking,  a  matter  of 
no  great  difQ.culty  to  have  secured  several  scores  or 
hundreds  of  converts  within  a  few  years,  with  a 
less  equipment  in  men  and  means  than  Captain 
Bickel  had  at  command,  by  following  the  usual 
method  of  evangelism,  the  good  old  Pauline  method 
indeed,  of  selecting  certain  strategic  points  and 
concentrating  effort  upon  these  until  the  work 
should  be  securely  planted,  and  a  considerable 
number  of  converts  gathered.  From  these  points 
the  Gospel  would  then,  in  a  natural  and  almost 
inevitable  way,  penetrate  into  the  regions  round 
about,  until  they  too  were  evangelized.  Paul  laid 
himself  out  upon  such  strategic  centres  as  Antioch, 
Ephesus,  and  Corinth.  Missionaries  in  Japan  have 
established  themselves  in  the  chief  cities,  Tokyo, 
Osaka,  Kyoto,  Nagoya,  and  a  hundred  other  im- 
portant centres.  There  they  have  concentrated 
their  efforts,  giving  comparatively  little  attention 
to  the  surrounding  rural  districts.  Win  the  town, 
and  the  town  will  win  the  country,  has  been  their 
motto.  As  goes  Tokyo,  so  goes  the  Empire,  was 
the  word  of  the  wise.  This  i)olicy  had  two  results. 
The  first  was,  that  in  a  comparatively  short  time, 
as  a  rule,  a  considerable  number  of  converts  was 
gathered  at  these  centres.  The  second  was,  that 
the  rural  districts  are  yet  almost  untouched  by  the 
Gospel.  After  sixty  years  of  missionary  effort 
there  is  a  flourishing  work  in  almost  every  city  and 
principal  town  in  Japan,  but  four-fifths  of  the 
people  of  the  countryside,  in  village  and  hamlet, 
are  still  waiting  for  the  message  of  the  Cross.  The 
great  problem  now  before  our  mission  forces,  and 
the  great  task  of  the  next  few  decades,  is  the  evan- 


A  VOYAGE  OF  DISCOYEEY  109 

gelization  of  the  rural  communities.  If  these  com- 
munities are  to  be  evangelized  within  this  genera- 
tion the  gradual  seeping  out  of  Christianity  from 
the  cities  must  be  supplemented  by  a  definite,  seri- 
ous attempt  to  i)resent  the  claims  of  Christ  to  the 
country  folk.  The  leaven  which  a  woman  took  and 
hid  in  three  measures  of  meal  till  the  whole  was 
leavened  may  have  been  placed  in  a  small  mass  in 
the  strategic  centre  of  the  bulk  of  flour,  but  more 
likely  was  thoroughly  distributed  through  it,  as  we 
mix  yeast  in  our  dough.  In  either  case  it  would 
be  but  a  question  of  time  till  the  whole  was 
leavened;  but  the  distributed  leaven  would  fulfill 
its  purpose  the  more  quickly.  No  doubt  Paul's 
missionary  strategy  was  masterly,  nay,  of  divine 
suggestion,  and  the  most  successful  possible  in  his 
circumstances  and  in  the  then  condition  of  the 
world ;  and  those  who  have  copied  that  strategy  in 
modern  missions  have  for  the  most  part  found  it 
yield  good  results.  In  Captain  BickeFs  case,  how- 
ever, the  very  unusual  conditions  obtaining  in  his 
field,  in  that  it  was  an  island  parish,  a  parish  of 
scattered  islands,  without  much  intercommunica- 
tion, each  island  a  little  world  by  itself,  made  it 
essential  that  each  island  be  brought  within  the 
direct  influence  of  the  vessel's  work.  Therefore 
our  Captain,  instead  of  confining  his  efforts  to  a 
few  populous  islands,  like  Shozu  or  Ikuchi,  or  a  few 
important  towns,  like  Setoda  and  Tonosho,  leaving 
the  other  hundreds  of  islands,  with  their  thousand 
villages,  to  receive  the  Gospel  second-hand,  in  some 
misty  future,  felt  it  incumbent  on  him,  so  far  as 
it  was  not  a  physical  impossibility,  to  begin  work 
in  all  the  islands,  in  all  the  villages,  from  the  ver^ 


110  CAPTAIN  BIOKEL 

first,  and  to  carry  it  forward  uniformly  over  the 
whole  field.  That  element  of  Paul's  strategy,  and 
of  mission  strategy  generally,  which  was  suited  to 
Inland  Sea  conditions,  he  incorj^orated  into  his 
plan,  by  selecting  a  strategic  centre  in  each  group 
of  islands,  after  the  first  rounds  of  his  parish  had 
been  made,  and  establishing  there  a  nucleus  of 
Christian  work,  with  the  arrangement,  however, 
that  from  that  centre  systematic  work  should  be 
carried  on,  so  far  as  the  workers'  strength  per- 
mitted, in  every  village  in  the  group.  Of  late 
years,  in  missionary  circles  in  Japan,  "  intensive 
work  "  and  "  concentration  "  have  been  words  to 
conjure  by.  The  mission  to  the  Inland  Sea  has 
been  from,  the  first  a  happy  example  of  the  possi- 
bility of  combining  concentration  and  diffusion,  of 
a  work  both  intensive  and  extensive.  But  to  adopt 
and  pursue  such  a  method  as  this  meant  that  the 
Fulcuin  Maru  mission  workers  must  be  willing  to 
labour  for  years  without  the  joy  of  seeing  numbers 
of  the  people  turning  to  Christ.  "  Ten  years  with- 
out visible  results,"  said  the  Captain,  but  it  was 
not  the  will  of  God  that  he  should  wait  so  long. 

On  December  2nd  the  anchor  was  dropped  off 
Shozu,  the  first  island  to  have  the  honour  of  a 
mission  visit  by  the  little  vessel.  It  lies  about 
thirty  miles  almost  due  west  from  the  north  point 
of  Awaji,  across  the  Harima  Nada.  It  is  the  lar- 
gest of  all  the  Islands  except  Awaji  itself,  which  the 
Captain  did  not  include  in  his  list,  because  Chris- 
tian work  was  already  being  done  there.  The  high 
land  under  whose  black  shadow  the  vessel  came  to 
anchor  that  first  night  out  from  Hiogo  was  part  of 
the  lofty  mountain  mass  of  Shozu  Island,  the  view 


A  VOYAGE  OF  DISCOVEEY  111 

from  tiie  summits  of  wMch,  soaring  three  tliousand 
feet  into  the  sky,  the  Captain  used  to  describe  v/ ith 
enthusiasm. 

The  town  off  which  the  vessel  made  her  first 
mission  anchorage  was  doubtless  Tonosho,  the  chief 
place  on  the  island,  destined  to  become  the  scene 
of  some  of  the  most  marked  successes  of  the  Inland 
Sea  Mission,  and  the  first  of  the  five  chief  centres 
of  the  work.  It  would  appear  that  at  Tonosho, 
and  among  the  villages  of  Shozu  generally,  the  Cap- 
tain encountered  very  little  hostility.  He  even 
speaks  of  the  reception  accorded  him  as  cordial. 
The  meetings  were  well  attended,  and  here  and 
there  were  individuals  who  seemed  to  take  more 
than  a  passing  interest  in  the  vessel.  The  mis- 
givings which  filled  our  Captain's  heart  when  he 
^ame  to  anchor  that  dark  December  night  under 
the  darker  shadow  of  Shozu  were  speedily  changed 
to  thanksgiYiiigs. 

The  morning  after  their  arrival  the  first  visitor 
came  aboard.  "  He  was  a  policeman.  He  was  so 
full  of  dignity  that  he  lost  his  balance  in  the  sam- 
pan (native  boat)  which  brought  him  out,  and 
tmnbled  overboard,  sword,  dignity  and  all."  He 
is  memorable  as  the  first  of  many  thousands  who 
came  as  visitors  to  the  ship  as  she  went  on  her  way. 

Without  seeking  to  trace  the  zigzag  course  of  the 
vessel  from  island  to  island,  or  the  zigzag  tramps  of 
her  Captain  from  village  to  village  over  the  rough 
granite  hills,  it  is  sufficient  to  record  that  during 
the  first  three  months,  the  windy  months  of  winter, 
with  their  heavy  weather  and  penetrating  cold, 
visits  were  made  to  thirteen  islands,  in  the  eastern 
section  of  the  Inland  Sea,  and  meetings  held  at 


112  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

over  fifty  places.  Many  of  these  fifty  towns  and 
villages  were  within  easy  distance  of  the  shii^'s 
anchorages,  but  others  were  on  remote  parts  of  the 
islands,  and  had  to  be  reached  by  wearisome  climbs 
over  the  hills.  Delightful  tramps  these,  to  one  who 
had  the  time  and  strength  to  spare :  the  trail  wind- 
ing over  the  pine-clad  ridges,  the  air  sweet  with 
balsam  of  the  woods  and  salt  of  the  sea,  every  turn 
of  the  path  yielding  charming  glimpses  of  the  blue 
water,  dotted  with  green  islands  and  white  sails  of 
ships.  The  writer  recalls  such  tramps  in  the  Cap- 
tain's comj)any  as  among  the  pleasant  incidents  of 
his  visits  to  the  vessel.  As  for  the  Captain  himself, 
overburdened  with  his  other  labours  ashore  and 
afloat,  these  long  mountain  walks  made  serious  de- 
mands upon  his  strength,  and  it  was  a  great  relief 
to  him  when,  in  1902,  the  kind  gift  of  a  25-foot 
motor-launch  by  Mr.  Allan,  the  donor  of  the  ship, 
enabled  him  to  dispense  with  most  of  this  hill- 
climbing.  The  villages  were  of  course  not  on  top 
of  the  hills,  but  beyond  the  hills  on  distant  shores 
of  the  islands,  in  places  which  did  not  afford  suit- 
able anchorage  for  the  vessel. 

If  the  mountain  tramps  involved  much  wearing 
toil,  the  navigation  of  the  vessel  was  a  still  heavier 
task,  for  reasons  already  set  down  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  Inland  Sea.  "  Sweeping  tides,  hinder- 
ing gales,  danger  from  rock  and  shoal  to  ship  and 
boats " — all  these  there  were,  and  also,  lack  of 
lighthouses,  lack  of  reliable  charts,  and  above  all, 
lack  of  auxiliary  power  in  the  vessel  to  take  her  to 
her  desired  haven  when  the  wind  failed  or  was  con- 
trary, and  the  tide  swept  her  from  her  course.  The 
Captain  used  to  say,  and  the  words  reveal  the  heart 


b£ 


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El 


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A  VOYAGE  OF  DISCOVERY  113 

of  the  man,  always  eager  for  tlie  hardest  tasks,  that 
he  ^^  never  prayed  for  a  fair  wind,''  for  what  was  a 
fair  wind  for  one  ship  might  be  a  foul  wind  for 
another,  sailing  in  a  contrary  direction ;  but  simply 
for  wind,  for  with  a  good  breeze  blowing  one  could 
beat  and  tack  and  get  to  the  appointed  place  some- 
how. 

^'Whatever  way  the  wind  may  blow 
Some  heart  is  glad  to  have  it  so. 
So  blow  it  east,  or  blow  it  west, 
Whatever  wind  may  blow  is  best.'' 

It  was  a  constant  regret  to  the  Captain,  and  to 
all  interested  in  the  work,  during  these  first  years, 
that  the  ship  had  been  built  to  depend  entirely 
upon  her  sails.  In  ordinary  waters  the  loss  would 
not  have  been  so  great,  but  in  such  a  tangle  of 
winds  and  tides  as  the  Inland  Sea  presents,  some 
auxiliary  power  was  almost  indispensable.  For 
the  lack  of  this  equipment  Captain  Bickel  was  not 
responsible,  for  he  recognized  its  desirability  from 
the  outset,  and  it  was  with  reluctance  and  under 
protest  that  he  yielded  in  the  matter  to  the  judg- 
ment of  others  and  consented  to  delete  the  item  of 
engines  from  the  original  plans  approved  by  the 
generous  donor  of  the  vessel.  But  having  so 
yielded  he  set  himself  to  build  the  very  best  pos- 
sible ship  of  sails,  and  with  a  cheerful  courage 
laboured  to  obtain  the  largest  results  such  a  vessel 
could  afford.  If  he  groaned  inwardly  at  times  in 
the  midst  of  a  losing  fight  with  wind  and  tide  it 
was  not  for  his  own  stress  and  strain  but  because 
of  the  loss  to  the  work,  which  always  lay  next  Ms 
heart.     The  motor-boat,  however,  not  only  relieved 


114  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

him  from  most  of  the  hard  hill  tramps,  but  was 
also  of  great  service  in  shifting  the  vessel's  anchor- 
age, or  in  rescuing  her  when  about  to  fall  upon 
dangerous  places,  thus  saving  her  skipper  much 
anxiety  as  well  as  valuable  time  and  strength.  It 
was  shortly  before  the  writer's  third  summer  visit 
to  the  Inland  Sea  that  the  launch  was  received,  and 
he  can  testify  that  she  lightened  the  Captain's  toil 
and  was  a  valuable  addition  to  the  vessel's  equip- 
ment. Then,  three  years  later,  in  1905,  the  orig- 
inal plans  for  the  ship  were  at  length  carried  out, 
and  she  was  fitted  with  auxiliary  engines.  This 
was  made  possible  by  a  liberal  contribution  toward 
the  expense  from  Mr.  Allan's  always  open  purse. 
It  was  a  red  letter  day  in  the  ship's  log  when  she 
made  her  first  run  under  her  own  power,  flaunting 
wind  and  tide.  But  we  are  getting  five  years  ahead 
of  our  story. 

The  Captain's  general  plan  of  campaign,  already 
roughly  drawn  up  when  he  started  on  his  first  mis- 
sion cruise,  has  been  already  outlined.  It  may  be 
of  interest  to  learn  what  was  the  actual  method  of 
attack,  or,  let  us  say,  approach,  when  any  par> 
ticular  island  or  community  was  visited.  ^*  Whero. 
to  begin,  and  what  method  to  adopt,  was  indeed  a 
problem.  There  seemed  no  way  but  to  begin  at  the 
beginning,  at  the  first  island,  the  first  village,  and 
then  the  next;  and  from  this  has  grown  up  by  a 
simple  and  natural  process,  as  God  has  led  the  way, 
rather  than  from  any  premeditated  plan,  the  pres- 
ent widespread,  organized  effort."  But  how  was 
the  work  in  the  first  island,  the  first  village,  and 
then  the  next,  to  be  begun? 

On  a   clear   cold   January   afternoon   a   white 


A  VOYAGE  OF  DISCOVERY  115 

schooner  flying  a  foreign  flag  is  seen  by  the  vil- 
lagers of  J  let  us  say,  Shiraislii,  working  her  way  in 
toward  their  harbour.  By  the  time  she  has  come 
to  anchor  and  the  sails  are  being  stowed,  a  crowd 
has  gathered  on  the  beach,  curious  to  know  what 
errand  has  brought  the  little  stranger  ship  to  their 
doors.  Boats  begin  to  push  off.  Presently  a  sam- 
pan propelled  by  two  brawny  scullers  brings  out  a 
policeman  in  a  rather  ill-fitting  uniform,  sword  on 
hip,  to  the  foot  of  the  ladder,  where  he  is  received 
by  the  Captain  with  every  mark  of  respect.  Com- 
ing on  board  he  makes  enquiry  as  to  the  purpose  for 
which  the  ship  comes,  her  crew,  the  Captain's  fam- 
ily, and  the  like,  her  probable  length  of  stay  at  her 
present  anchorage,  her  last  port  of  call  and  her 
next  port  of  call.  He  asks  to  see  the  government 
permit  under  which  the  ship  sails  among  the 
Islands,  and  is  courteously  conducted  to  the  cabin 
where  the  precious  document  is  submitted  to  his 
grave  inspection.  Having  been  already  advised 
from  Tokyo  to  afford  the  vessel  and  her  company 
protection  and  necessary  help,  he  expresses  his 
satisfaction  with  the  answers  made  to  his  enquiries, 
makes  a  conventional  offer  of  aid  if  any  occasion 
call  for  it,  and  over  a  cup  of  tea  perhaps  expresses 
his  fear  that  the  ignorant  and  backward  condition 
of  the  people  of  the  island  will  make  the  Captain's 
honourable  efforts  on  their  behalf  nugatory.  So 
soon  as  he  has  been  bowed  down  the  ladder,  the 
ship's  boat  is  lowered,  and  the  Captain  and  Japa- 
nese evangelist  are  rowed  to  the  shore.  Merely 
pausing  there  long  enough  to  announce  to  the  crowd 
that  a  meeting  will  probably  be  held  at  some  house 
in  their  village  that  evening,  they  make  their  way 


116  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

to  the  village  office,  to  pay  a  visit  of  courtesy,  and 
perhaps  make  enquiry  as  to  whose  house  may  be 
suitable  for  the  proposed  evening  meeting.  For  as 
a  rule  the  meetings  must  be  held  in  private  houses, 
there  being  no  halls  or  theatres  to  hire  and  no  hotels 
to  throw  open  their  rooms  for  such  a  purpose.  As 
on  the  mainland,  meetings  may  be  held  in  the  open 
air,  beside  the  beach,  by  the  roadside,  in  a  temple 
grove,  or  in  a  schoolhouse,  but  Captain  Bickel  pre- 
ferred a  gathering  in  the  home  of  one  of  the  vil- 
lagers of  good  standing,  in  w^hich  common  courtesy 
to  the  host  would  compel  the  audience  to  listen 
with  quiet  and  respect,  where  the  message  could  be 
spoken  in  an  unhurried  way,  and  where  afterward 
those  interested  could  be  gathered  about  the 
hibachi — the  Japanese  hearth — for  a  more  intimate 
talk.  If  the  interest  and  friendship  of  the  good- 
man  of  the  house  could  be  won,  so  that  on  future 
visits  of  the  vessel  his  doors  would  be  open,  it  was 
an  asset  of  great  value  for  time  to  come.  A  small 
o  rely  or  thank-gift,  in  money,  wrapped  according 
to  etiquette  in  paper,  and  presented  with  some  in- 
teresting tracts  when  the  meeting  had  dispersed, 
served  to  cover  the  expense  of  light  and  fuel,  with 
a  little  margin  for  the  trouble  incurred.  To  find  a 
house  spacious  enough  to  accommodate  a  large  part 
of  the  local  population,  and  convenient  of  access, 
and  then  to  persuade  the  head  of  the  family  to  lend 
his  rooms  to  the  Jesus  Teachers  for  a  lecture-meet- 
ing was  not  always  easy,  was  occasionally  im- 
possible. In  such  cases  a  meeting  might  be  held 
by  daylight  in  the  open  air,  some  tracts  distributed, 
the  work  of  the  vessel  explained,  some  simple  truths 
of  Christianity  proclaimed,  and  notice  given  that 


A  VOYAGE  OF  DISCOVEEY  117 

on  her  next  round  tlie  vessel  would  call  there  again, 
and  if  possible  an  indoor  meeting  be  arranged 
for. 

A  bouse  having  been  secured,  the  next  step  was 
to  advertise  the  meeting,  which  w^as  done  when 
possible  by  going  in  person  from  door  to  door, 
through  the  entire  village,  and  announcing  the  time 
and  place,  with  a  polite  invitation  to  the  family  to 
attend.  The  writer  when  with  Captain  Bickel  took 
his  share  of  these  advertising  calls,  being  accus- 
tomed to  advertising  his  own  meetings  in  this  w^ay 
in  his  own  country  work.  One  falls  into  a  regular 
formula :  "  Please  excuse  me !  Just  a  word !  To- 
night at  eight,  at  So-and-so's,  there  will  be  a  lecture 
meeting  by  the  Fukum  Mam  people.  Everybody 
welcome,  children  and  all.  Please  arrange  to 
come."  When  one  has  got  off  this  formula  at  forty 
or  fifty  doors  it  comes  as  easy  as  sneezing.  As  a 
result  of  this  advertising  the  house  would  be 
crowded,  a  large  proportion  of  the  villagers,  men, 
women  and  children,  attending. 

The  meeting  would  be  without  singing,  Scripture 
reading  or  prayer,  as  these  would  be  unintelligible 
to  the  audience,  a  waste  of  time,  and  a  hindrance 
rather  than  a  help.  This  being  the  first  meeting 
held  at  this  village  its  purpose  is  to  introduce  the 
Mission  Vessel,  remove  prejudices  against  Christi- 
anity, create  an  interest  in  the  Ship  and  a  favour- 
able attitude  toward  her  work,  and  present  certain 
elementary  truths  of  the  Gospel.  A  roll  of  maps, 
charts  and  pictures  is  hung  up  in  the  best  lighted 
part  of  the  room,  among  which  is  a  map  of  the 
world  showing  the  areas  where  the  several  chief 
religions  prevail;  a  chart  showing  the  number  of 


118  CAPTAIN  BICKBL 

adherents  of  these  religions,  the  number  of  lan- 
guages into  which  the  Christian  Scrijptures  have 
been  translated  and  the  yearly  output  of  Bibles, 
and  facts  of  that  nature ;  some  pictures  from  Sun- 
day-school rolls  illustrating  the  truths  presented, 
and  a  picture  of  the  FuJcuin  Maru. 

The  audience  is  seated  on  the  floor,  on  their  shins, 
on  the  mats,  as  close  together  as  they  can  sit  with 
comfort.  Those  who  smoke  cluster  around  the 
JiihacJiiy  of  which  several  have  been  brought  in  on 
account  of  the  cold,  and  punctuate  the  address  with 
the  sharp  rap  of  the  little  brass  bowled  pipes  on  the 
metal  rim  of  the  braziers.  All  listen  seriously  and 
resi)ectfully,  and  apparently  with  understanding, 
the  talk  being  made  as  simple  as  possible.  When 
the  address  is  finished,  and  the  audience  dismissed 
with  an  invitation  to  come  out  and  visit  the  vessel, 
a  number  of  the  older  people  will  remain  for  con- 
versation, and  it  is  nearing  midnight  when  the 
picture  roll  is  tied  up,  and  the  workers  pick  their 
way  by  lantern  light  back  to  the  beach  and  signal 
for  the  boat  to  take  them  off  to  the  ship. 

In  this  way,  during  the  first  cruise,  as  mentioned 
above,  thirteen  of  the  most  easterly  group  of 
islands,  carrying  fifty  villages,  were  opened  up  to 
the  work.  In  a  very  few  of  these  villages  Christian 
meetings  had  been  held,  once  at  least,  by  visiting 
evangelists  from  the  mainland.  One  Christian  was 
met,  another  was  heard  of.  Practically,  to  all  the 
villages  and  to  all  the  people,  the  Gospel  was  a 
strange,  new  message. 

The  reception  accorded  to  the  FuJcuin  Maru  and 
her  Captain  in  this  group  of  islands  was  almost 
everywhere,  as  on  Shozu,  more  encouraging  than  he 


A  VOYAGE  OF  DISCOVEEY  119 

had  dared  to  hope ;  the  Ship,  the  Captain,  and  the 
Message  had  at  least  a  favourable  introduction  to 
the  Island  peoi^le.  The  attendance  at  the  meet- 
ings ran  up  into  an  average  of  several  hundred  to 
a  village.  It  was  curiosity  of  course,  and  a  wish 
for  entertainment,  that  brought  them  together,  not 
a  hungering  and  thirsting  after  righteousness ;  but 
it  did  very  well  for  a  beginning,  and  each  one  car- 
ried away  some  novel  ideas  to  brood  over  till  the 
next  visit  of  the  ship. 

The  experiences  of  these  first  three  months,  in 
these  first  fifty  villages  visited,  were  duplicated  in 
the  hundreds  of  other  villages  to  which  the  ship 
went  during  the  remainder  of  her  first  year  of 
service,  her  first  round  of  the  Inland  Sea.  Occa- 
sionally a  village  or  an  island  presented  a  front  of 
deliberate  and  stubborn  hostility,  as  at  Setoda,  on 
Ikuchi,  where  every  householder  in  the  town  signed 
a  pledge  binding  himself  not  to  lend  his  house  for 
a  Christian  meeting.  By  the  way,  watch  Setoda, 
the  unwilling,  and  note  the  entries  in  the  Captain's 
log  in  which  she  figures.  Tonosho,  the  hospitable^ 
was  the  chief  town  of  the  great  Island  of  Shozu, 
and  so  the  natural  capital  of  the  easternmost  group 
of  islands.  To  be  received  there  in  a  friendly  way 
was  a  happy  omen.  Setoda,  the  inhospitable,  was 
the  most  important  place  on  the  large  Island  of 
Ikuchi,  and  the  natural  capital  of  the  island  cluster 
next  westward.  To  be  repelled  here  must  have 
been  a  great  disappointment.  As  a  rule,  however, 
the  Captain  found  open  doors,  or  at  least  doors  not 
barred  and  bolted,  and  as  for  the  few  that  seemed 
nailed  up  to  stay  he  referred  them  to  Him  who  can 
break  the  gates  of  brass  and  cut  the  bars  of  iron  in 


120  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

suiider — and  knocked  again  on  the  next  round  of 
tlie  Islands. 

While  the  vessel  was  making  her  first  rounds  of 
the  Islands  her  home  port  was  at  Banshu,  at  the 
head  of  a  deep  narrow  fiord,  a  lovely  bit  of  water 
extending  far  into  the  hills  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Harima  Nada.  Banshu  is  within  easy  reach  of 
Himeji,  where  Captain  Bickel  made  his  shore  home, 
in  those  brief  periods  w^hen  he  granted  himself 
shore  leave,  and  where  he  left  his  family  when  the 
season  made  it  unsafe  for  them  to  accompany  him 
among  the  Islands. 

If  one  should  cruise  the  coasts  of  the  Seven  Seas 
he  could  hardly  find  an  anchorage  more  ideal  than 
that  at  Banshu.  No  matter  what  tempest  is  abroad 
it  rouses  no  tumult  in  these  hill-sheltered  waters, 
across  the  width  of  which  a  Japanese  archer  would 
deem  it  a  poor  feat  to  shoot  an  arrow.  And  surely 
never  did  the  little  fiord  w^ear  a  more  charming 
asx)ect  than  one  smiling  May  morning  in  1900,  when 
the  Little  White  Ship,  returned  from  a  cruise 
among  the  islands  of  the  Ikuchi  Cluster,  lay  there 
swinging  at  her  anchor.  The  writer  had  arrived 
from  Yokohama,  via  Himeji,  the  evening  before, 
and  this  was  his  first  visit  to  the  ship,  and  the  first 
day  of  his  visit.  The  narrow  bay,  all  silver  and 
blue  in  the  morning  breeze  and  sunshine,  the  tree- 
clad  hills  in  which  it  was  framed,  the  dainty  little 
vessel  at  anchor  in  mid-stream,  made  a  picture  to 
rejoice  an  artist  or  a  poet.  Some  matters  of  mis- 
sion business  detained  the  ship  here  for  several 
days,  and  as  we  were  outside  the  limits  of  the  Cap- 
tain's parish  and  therefore  holding  no  evangelistic 
services,  it  afforded  a  delightful  opportunity  for 


A  VOYAGE  OF  DISCOVEEY  121 

rest  and  recreation.  Tlie  Captain,  of  course,  was 
busy  with  many  things,  preparing  for  the  next 
cruise,  but  Mrs.  Bickel  and  a  lady  guest  from  Yoko- 
hama, with  the  Japanese  evangelist  and  the  writer, 
improved  the  shining  hours  by  visits  to  the  lower 
slopes  of  the  hills  to  gather  the  wild  azaleas,  or 
by  excursions  on  one  of  the  ship's  boats  down  to 
"  The  Eocks,"  where  we  found  wonderful  shell-fish, 
sea-slugs  and  other  marine  curiosities.  With  the 
going  down  of  the  sun,  and  the  hush  of  the  even- 
ing calm,  rose  the  full  moon  in  glory  behind  the 
ancient  wide-boughed  pines. 

Now,  every  Japanese  is  a  potential  poet,  and  at 
the  writer's  suggestion  Evangelist  Katataye,  gazing 
at  the  golden  splendour  foiled  by  the  dark  boughs 
through  which  it  glowed,  presently  produced  a 
poem  of  the  conventional  Japanese  form  and 
flavour,  wherein  within  the  compass  of  thirty 
syllables  may  be  found  the  pines  and  the  moon- 
light, the  hush  of  evening  and  the  sigh  of  the  sleep- 
ing tide,  and  a  hint  of  the  strange  sadness  which 
the  sight  of  such  great  beauty  wakes  in  the  human 
heart. 

After  one  or  two  such  Arcadian  days  we  got  up 
sail  and  anchor  and  slipped  down  the  placid  fiord 
to  the  open  waters  of  the  Harima  Nada.  Here 
there  was  a  fine  fresh  breeze  blowing,  and  presently 
we  were  bowling  along  at  a  seven  knot  clip  down 
the  west.  'Not  far  removed  from  the  outlet  of  the 
fiord  were  two  tiny  twin  islands,  each  with  a  village 
on  its  shore,  which  it  had  not  been  convenient  for 
the  vessel  to  call  at  on  her  former  cruises.  Ac- 
cordingly we  shaped  our  course  for  these,  and 
presently  coming  to  anchor  off  one  of  them  lowered 


122  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

tlie  boat  and  went  ashore.  Tlie  people  came 
running  together  to  the  beach,  and  when  a  consider- 
able crowd  had  gathered,  the  roll  of  maps  and 
pictures  was  hung  up  against  a  convenient  post, 
and  Evangelist  Katataye  explained  to  them  the 
purpose  of  the  vessel,  and  they  heard  for  the  first 
time  of  the  living  and  true  God,  and  of  Jesus  Christ 
whom  He  had  sent.  No  attempt  was  made  here 
to  arrange  for  an  evening  meeting,  xierhaps  because 
there  was  no  safe  anchorage  near.  And  as  the  other 
twin  island  lay  very  near  its  fellow,  and  both  isles 
had  contributed  to  our  audience,  and  the  day  was 
already  far  spent,  we  made  no  other  landing,  but 
got  up  sail  and  set  the  course  for  one  of  the  larger 
islands  westward. 

During  the  weeks  that  followed  we  voyaged  msmj 
leagues,  landed  on  many  islands,  visited  many  vil- 
lages, clambered  over  many  granite  hills,  held 
many  meetings  in  hospitable  farmhouses,  or  on 
windy  beaches,  the  full  account  of  which  would 
leave  no  room  for  aught  else  between  the  covers  of 
this  book.  Those  were  memorable  days,  memorable 
for  the  beauty  of  the  Island  world  amid  which  we 
sailed,  or  drifted,  by  sunlight  or  moonlight; 
memorable  for  the  afternoon  tramps  across  the 
hills,  with  the  song  of  the  south  wind  through  the 
pines  for  marching  music,  and  for  the  glorious 
moonlight  nights  when  the  sea  lay  in  purple  shadow 
and  the  silence  was  broken  but  by  the  whisper  of 
the  waves  along  the  flanks  of  the  vessel.  Memo> 
rable  beyond  that  were  they  for  the  daily  glimpses 
afforded  of  our  Captain's  heart,  of  his  supreme 
devotion  to  his  Master  and  to  the  Mission  on  which 
the  Master  had  sent  him,  and  of  the  tact,  the  wis- 


A  VOYAGE  OF  DISCOVEEY  123 

dom,  the  courtesy,  the  patience,  the  gentleness  with 
which  he  was  introducing  that  Master  and  that 
Mission  to  the  Island  Folk.  Memorable,  too,  were 
those  golden  weeks,  because  they  were  the  Be- 
ginning of  the  Year  of  our  Lord  to  many  a  gray 
village  on  the  Island  shores. 

In  the  above  account  of  the  vessel's  first  year  of 
service  those  trials  of  the  Captain's  faith  which 
arose  from  the  perversity  of  man  have  been  lightly 
touched  upon.  There  were  rebuffs  as  well  as  wel- 
comes. It  was  not  only  in  the  Island  of  Ikuchi 
that  he  found  unfriendly  faces.  True,  not  many 
places  were  so  openly  hostile  as  Setoda,  but  in  not 
a  few  the  people  met  the  Captain's  overtures  with 
suspicion  and  half-concealed  enmity.  In  his  re- 
ports he  makes  very  light  of  unpleasant  experi- 
ences, rarely  referring  to  them  at  all,  as  becometh 
a  missionary  and  a  sailor.  Sometimes,  though,  in 
conversation,  spinning  a  seaman's  yarn  as  he  paced 
the  deck  with  a  visiting  friend,  he  might  introduce 
them  as  amusing  episodes,  too  good  to  be  forgotten. 

To  see  children  fleeing  in  terror,  because  they 
had  been  told  the  tall  fierce  looking  foreign  priest 
would  drink  their  blood;  to  be  greeted  by  those 
same  children,  grown  bolder,  with  such  heartsome 
epithets  as  *^  foreign  fool,'^  "  child-thief,"  "  robber,'' 
and  "  Christian  pig,"  names  which  they  had  heard 
at  home  from  their  elders'  lips ;  to  be  shunned  as  a 
Russian  spy,  an  enemy  of  Great  Japan,  a  despiser 
of  the  Imperial  House,  an  introducer  of  new  cus- 
toms which  it  was  not  lawful  for  the  Islanders  to 
observe,  being  Japanese,  a  def amer  of  the  ancestral 
gods,  a  member  of  the  sect  everywhere  spoken 
against,  one  of  those  who  turn  the  world  upside 


124  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

down — ^inost  of  these  are  experiences  wMch  any 
missionary  in  country  work  on  the  mainland  can 
duplicate,  but  no  doubt  the  Islands  afforded  more 
than  the  average  number  and  variety  of  them.  In 
some  places  the  peojjle  sullenly  refused  to  direct 
him  on  his  way,  as  he  w^ent  from  village  to  village, 
a  discourtesy  which  the  w^riter  has  never  himself 
witnessed  in  Jai)an.  In  extreme  cases  they  went 
so  far  as  to  threaten  his  life  if  he  should  rej)eat  his 
visit  to  their  community.  In  some  instances  at 
least  the  priests  were  back  of  this  hostility,  fore- 
seeing in  the  success  of  the  vessel  the  downfall  of 
their  own  authority.  Occasionally  they  came  out 
openly  against  the  Christian  teachers,  denouncing 
them  publicly  as  dangerous  misleaders  of  the 
people. 

But  open,  frank  hostility  to  the  new  Teaching 
was  comparatively  rare  and  was  the  least  of  the 
obstacles  in  the  Captain's  way.  The  real  fight  was 
with  the  silent  suspicion,  the  deep-rooted  preju- 
dices, the  love  of  the  old  heathen  customs ;  with  long 
standing  habits  of  thought,  and  with  human  igno- 
rance and  depravity  and  inertia.  How  the  open 
enmity  was  disarmed,  and  these  covert  enemies 
overcome,  must  be  told  in  another  chapter. 

When  the  FuJcuin  Maru  came  to  anchor  at  Ban- 
shu  in  the  summer  of  1900,  with  half  a  year's 
voyaging  behind  her,  she  had  sailed  the  broad 
spaces  and  the  narrow  channels  of  the  Seto-Nai- 
Kai  from  Awaji  to  western  reaches  of  the  Bingo 
Nada,  and  had  aroused  at  least  a  friendly  curiosity 
in  the  hearts  of  thousands  of  the  Island  people. 
The  Captain  had  explored  the  eastern  half  of  his 
parish.     The  conquest  of  the  Islands  was  begun. 


A  VOYAGE  OF  DISCOVEEY  125 

He  had  gone  out  with  misgivings,  he  returned  with 
thanksgivings.  A  great  and  effectual  door  had 
been  opened  to  him.  If  there  were  many  adver- 
saries there  were  also  many  who  were  ready  to  be 
friends.  ^^We  have  been  getting  acquainted,"  he 
said  later,  summing  up  the  experiences  of  the  year. 
These  first  mission  cruises  were  voyages  of  dis- 
covery not  for  the  Captain  only,  but  for  the 
Islanders  as  well.  Their  discoveries  were  such  that 
they  awaited  with  interest  the  next  coming  of  the 
little  vessel,  the  next  address  on  the  strange  re- 
ligion she  represented.  To  the  Island  Folk  of  the 
Inland  Sea  had  come  the  first  faint  dawn  of  a 
new  day. 


X 

THE  CMIEL'S  NOSE 

THE  Captain's  success,  during  his  Voyage 
of  Discovery,  in  introducing  his  Vessel 
and  his  Message  to  the  Island  com- 
munities on  the  shores  of  the  Harima  Nada  and 
the  Bingo  Nada  put  the  future  of  the  Inland  Sea 
Mission  in  a  much  more  hopeful  light,  humanly 
speaking,  than  that  in  which  it  had  presented  itself 
to  his  mind  that  memorable  night  when  the  little 
vessel  lay  in  the  dark  shadows  of  Shozu  Shima, 
with  the  whole  vast  field  all  unknown,  untried. 
With  fresh  hope  and  courage,  which  increased  with 
each  fresh  adventure  of  faith,  he  hoisted  sail  for 
his  next  cruise  among  the  Islands. 

Passing  by  hospitable  Shozu  Shima,  with  its 
verdant  satellites,  and  surly  Ikuchi,  with  its  ad- 
jacent isles,  the  Little  White  Ship  spread  her  white 
wings  for  the  two  great  groups  of  islands  yet  un- 
visited,  lying  far  down  toward  the  sunset,  those 
which  we  now  speak  of  as  the  Kurahashi  and 
Agenosho  Groups.  From  island  to  island,  and 
from  harbour  to  harbour,  the  little  vessel  moved  on, 
picking  her  way  carefully  among  rocks  and  shoals, 
charted  and  uncharted ;  and  from  village  to  village 
across  the  pine-clad  granite  hills  tramped  the  Cap- 
tain and  the  Japanese  evangelist,  with  lantern  and 

126 


THE  CAMEL'S  NOSE  127 

picture  rolls;  till  presently,  as  mentioned  in  the 
preceding  cliapter,  most  of  the  principal  islands 
had  been  visited,  and  most  of  the  more  important 
of  their  towns  and  villages  had  had  a  glimpse  of 
the  trim  little  foreign  ship,  had  seen  the  tall  for- 
eign captain  walk  their  stony  streets,  and  had  had 
for  the  first  time  an  opportunity  to  hear  of  that 
strange  foreign  religion  to  make  known  which,  it 
seemed,  had  brought  ship  and  captain  to  their 
shores.  Setting  down  these  islands  and  island 
communities  of  the  Kurahashi  and  Agenosho 
Groups  on  the  ship's  list,  beneath  those  visited  dur- 
ing the  earlier  cruises  in  the  clusters  of  Ikuchi  and 
Shozu,  the  Captain  found  that  he  had  carried  his 
message  to  some  sixty  islands,  and  to  about  four 
hundred  Island  communities,  before  the  vessel  had 
completed  her  first  full  year  of  service,  before  the 
second  Christmas  Day  lit  up  the  Island  hills.  As 
in  the  case  of  the  more  easterly  groups,  the  villages 
and  towns  of  these  westward  islands,  with  very  few 
exceptions,  accorded  a  polite  if  not  a  cordial  recep- 
tion to  the  tall  white  stranger.  Houses  were 
opened  for  the  meetings  and  the  peoi)le  packed 
them  to  the  walls,  and  out  past  the  movable  walls 
into  the  street  or  the  courtyard.  The  Captain  and 
his  Japanese  fellow-worker,  who  was  of  course  the 
chief  speaker,  were  heard  with  at  least  outward 
respect  and  attention,  if  perhaps  with  inward  in- 
credulity and  amusement.  At  the  least  a  nexus 
had  been  established  between  the  vessel  and  the 
Islands ;  a  footing  had  been  gained  of  which  advan- 
tage could  be  taken  on  subsequent  visits ;  the  camel 
had  gotten  his  nose  into  the  tent.  It  was  the 
Captain's  steadfast  resolution  that  the  hold  gained 


128  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

should  never  be  relaxed ;  that  no  door  once  ever  so 
little  set  ajar  should  be  allowed  to  close  again; 
that  once  the  camePs  nose  was  inside  the  curtain 
it  should  never  be  withdrawn.  So  the  Captain 
came  sailing  back  to  Bansliu  with  the  west  wind 
swelling  his  canvas,  more  enriched  by  his  year's 
voyages  than  ever  was  skipper  coming  home  from 
a  season's  sealing  with  a  hold  packed  with  green 
hides  or  from  some  prosperous  trading  venture  to 
the  coasts  of  Cathay,  for  had  he  not  sixty  islands 
and  four  hundred  Island  communities  on  his  list  of 
open  doors?  On  his  way  back  he  had  even  made 
opportunity  to  touch  at  a  few  of  the  places  visited 
during  his  first  cruises,  and  great  was  his  joy  and 
gratitude  to  find  a  welcome  more  cordial  even  than 
that  previously  accorded  him. 

In  a  letter  written  to  Gleanings  in  the  fall  of 
1900,  the  Captain  writes : 

**  Since  I  wrote  my  last  letter  to  you  in  February,  the 
Fukiiin  Maru  has  had  a  variety  of  experiences.  God's 
loving  kindness  has,  however,  watched  over  us  day  and 
night.  We  have  had  the  joy  since  last  December  of 
seeing  Christmas  Day  dawn  upon  fifty  islands  large  and 
small,  in  that,  for  the  first  time,  the  'glad  tidings  of 
great  joy'  has  come  to  the  ears  and  I  trust,  in  some  cases, 
in  some  measure,  to  the  hearts  of  the  people.  We  have 
had  a  happy,  busy  time  these  last  months. 

**Well,  despite  high  winds,  low  winds,  and  no  winds, 
and  in  spite  of  the  necessity  of  playing  a  continual  game 
of  hide  and  seek  with  the  tide  between  rocks  and  shoals, 
we  have  been  permitted  to  visit  some  seventy  anchorages, 
and  have  had  meetings  at  which,  at  a  low  estimate,  we 
had  an  attendance  of  thirty  thousand  persons.  In  all 
but  two  islands  we  had  a  repetition  of  the  experiences 


THE  CAMEL'S  ITOSE  129 

reported  before,  abundant  willingness  to  hear  and  much 
kindness  shown  us  by  the  people.  In  one  island  thir- 
teen meetings  were  held,  in  the  largest  houses  available, 
in  different  villages,  during  a  period  of  only  eight  days, 
and  we  changed  our  anchorage  four  times  in  doing  it. 
At  one  place  we  had  a  hard  tramp  on  a  dark  night  over 
hills  of  1,200  feet,  and  losing  our  way  we  were  late  in 
arriving,  only  to  find  that  a  veritable  feast  of  food  and 
fruit,  lemonade,  beer  and  sake  had  been  prepared  for  us 
in  the  best  house  in  the  village.  After  partaking  of  the 
more  innocent  portion  of  the  food  we  were  ushered  into 
a  large  new  school  building,  packed  with  people,  into 
which  little  air  could  come  as  the  twenty  windows  and 
the  doors  were  packed  as  well.  On  the  way  back  we 
got  caught  by  the  tide  under  a  cliff,  and  seeing  the 
prospect  of  a  long  wait  and  a  poor  chance  even  then,  I 
took  the  whole  mission  outfit  on  my  shoulders — 
Katataye  San  (the  evangelist),  lamp,  umbrellas,  picture 
roll  and  furoshiki  (cloth  for  carrying  a  parcel  in) — and 
waded  waist  deep  around  the  cliff  for  a  quarter  of  a 
mile,  reaching  the  vessel  at  1  a.  m.  after  another  four 
miles  in  wet  clothes.' 

**In  this  particular  island,  as  also  in  some  others,  the 
[missionary]  sisters  who  have  been  with  us  this  summer 
rendered  valuable  assistance.  Special  meetings  for 
women  were  arranged  for,  and  were  much  appreciated. 
At  one  place  in  Saki  Jima,  when  the  ladies  were  present, 
the  floor  of  half  the  house  collapsed,  bringing  down  the 
dispensary  (for  the  proprietor  was  a  doctor)  and  all 
the  people  into  a  hole  about  five  feet  deep.  No  one 
was  hurt,  however. 

**Well,  then,  you  may  ask,  what  about  the  two  islands 
where  we  had  a  different  reception?  Well,  the  devil 
holds  heyday  there.  They  are  two  of  the  chief  Buddhist 
strongholds  in  the  Inland  Sea  and,  strange  to  say,  two 
of  the  most  immoral  places  in  the  same  area.  At 
Mitarai,  one  of  these  islands,  the  priests  and  people  had 


130  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

a  consultation  before  we  came  and  decided  that  no  one 
must  let  us  have  a  house  and  any  one  attending  a  meet- 
ing should  be  driven  out.  We  came,  and  the  people 
were  very  hard  indeed.  We  expressed  our  regret  at 
such  a  state  of  affairs,  and  told  them  that  if  we  could 
not  have  a  house  we  must  hold  meetings  in  the  open  air. 
We  prayed  long  and  hard,  and  then  held  some  open  air 
meetings  and  sought  to  get  in  touch  with  individuals, 
with  the  result  that  little  by  little  the  people  seemed  to 
soften.  The  last  evening  we  spent  up  in  one  of  the 
temples  with  the  priests,  assuring  them  that  we  had 
come  to  come  again  and  yet  again.  So  after  I  get 
through  with  my  outfitting  and  cleaning  I  hope  to  go 
back,  and  hope  and  expect  to  find  the  people  more 
friendly. 

''On  my  way  up  to  Banshu  I  called  in  at  my  first 
island,  Shozu  Shima,  again.  God  had  so  put  my  want 
of  faith  to  shame  that  I  dared  not  insult  Him  any  fur- 
ther by  doubting  that  He  was  leading  us  step  by  step  in 
these  first  visits  to  island  after  island ;  but  coming  back 
to  the  first  island  for  the  second  time,  after  the  novelty 
of  the  thing  had  worn  off,  even  in  the  face  of  'so  great 
a  cloud  of  witnesses'  my  faith  wavered,  only  to  be  put 
to  shame  again.  Our  reception  was  as  cordial  as  be- 
fore, the  meetings  as  wxll  attended,  the  interest  of  in- 
dividuals as  great  as  before. 

*'And  so  all  the  way  God  has  been  overwhelming  us 
with  mercy.  And  now  there  are  coming  in  requests  for 
literature  and  for  letters  or  renewed  visits,  or  visits  to 
places  not  yet  reached.  From  one  place  visited  last 
January  comes  a  request:  'Can  you  send  some  one  or 
come  yourself  again,  as  there  are  twenty  families  wish- 
ing special  instruction?' 

*'And  you,  my  dear  friends,  have  had  a  large  share 
in  bringing  these  blessings  upon  us.  You  have,  I  feel 
sure,  prayed  earn^tly  with  us,  and  God  in  His  abundant 
mercy  has  heard  us  and  has  answered  far  beyond  our 


THE  CAIVIEUS  NOSE  131 

faith.  He  has  brought  glory  to  His  name  by  again 
proving  that  through  weak  instruments  He  is  able  to 
accomplish  His  purposes.  As  you  have  had  a  share  in 
bringing  the  blessings,  I  am  anxious  that  you  should 
also  share  the  blessing.  Hence  I  write  so  earnestly  of 
His  loving  kindness,  that  rejoicing  with  me  you  may 
be  encouraged.'' 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  when  Christinas  Day 
dawned  in  the  year  of  grace  nineteen  hundred,  in 
sixty  of  the  chief  islands  of  the  Inland  Sea,  in  some 
four  hundred  of  their  most  important  towns  and 
villages,  the  camel's  nose  was  already  within  the 
tent  door.  Captain  Bickel  was  determined  that, 
God  helping  him,  it  should  never  be  forced  to  with- 
draw, but  that  head  and  shoulders  should  follow 
in  due  time.  Keferring  to  the  difficulties  con- 
fronting him,  and  the  signs  of  progress  that  even 
the  earliest  years  of  the  work  brought,  he  says, 
"But  the  promises  of  the  Lord,  who  knows  it  all, 
yes,  all,  do  they  not  assure  us  that  the  wedge  just 
entering  shall  be  driven  in  up  to  the  very  hilt,  and 
to  the  rending  asunder  of  the  dark,  solid  mass,  if 
we  are  but  faithful,  ever  faithful."  How  the  Cap- 
tain's determination  and  the  divine  promises  were 
fulfilled  may  be  found  duly  set  forth  in  subsequent 
chapters. 


XI 

THE  TRANSFORMATION  OF  THE  CREW 

AMONG  tlie  many  difficult  problems  which 
faced  the  skipper  of  the  Fukuin  Maru  sit 
the  opening  of  the  Inland  Sea  Mission  none 
was  of  more  inmiediate  practical  moment  than  that 
of  a  crew  for  his  little  vessel.  There  had  to  he  a 
crew,  for  no  navigator,  however  expert  and  re- 
sourceful, could  hope  to  sail  even  a  little  eighty-ton 
fore-and-aft  schooner  single  handed.  To  handle 
her  properly,  in  such  waters  as  she  was  to  traverse, 
there  were  needed  seven  able-bodied  men.  It  was 
out  of  the  question,  for  financial  and  other  reasons, 
to  engage  a  foreign  crew.  Japan  being  a  group 
of  islands,  a  land  of  fishing  fleets,  and  possessing  a 
large  mercantile  marine,  has  no  lack  of  bold  and 
skillful  seamen.  If  only  there  had  been  among 
these  seven  Christian  sailors  who  would  have  taken 
an  interest  in  the  little  ship  for  her  work's  sake, 
and  have  shipped  on  her  for  the  love  of  God!  To 
run  a  Mission  Ship  with  a  heathen  crew  is  like  run- 
ning a  Christian  school  with  heathen  teachers. 
There  being  no  Christian  sailors  available  Captain 
Bicfeel  raked  together  such  a  crew  as  he  could,  and 
hoisted  sail.  He  was  used  to  sailors,  and  to  rough 
and  godless  sailors.  He  would  get  along  some- 
how.    It  was  to  do  hard  things  he  had  come  to 

132 


New  Fukuin  Maru  at  anchor 


THE  TEANSFOEMATION  OF  THE  CESW    133 

Japan.  That  tliey  were  guiltless  of  a  knowledge 
of  the  King's  English,  or  even  of  "  English  as  she 
is  Japped,"  while  he  himself  had  hardly  what  could 
be  called  a  speaking  acquaintance  with  Japanese, 
was  a  minor  difficulty  and  ready  to  vanish  away. 
A  major  difQ.culty  was  to  preserve  discipline  on  the 
ship  without  resorting  to  the  disciplinary  meas- 
ures which  those  who  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships 
have  found  necessary  from  ancient  times. 

Corporal  punishment  is  viewed  with  disapproval 
in  Japan.  In  the  seclusion  of  his  own  home  the 
goodman  of  the  house  may,  indeed,  lay  violent 
hands  upon  his  wife  and  children,  in  chastisement 
for  real  or  fancied  faults,  or  as  a  ijleasurable  exer- 
cise. It  is  for  them  to  cherish  a  lively  gratitude 
toward  their  lord  and  master  for  his  honourable 
attentions.  A  policeman  or  a  prison  warden  may 
do  bodily  damage  to  those  who  have  been  impru- 
dent enough  to  fall  into  his  hands,  to  encourage 
them  to  a  confession  of  their  wrong-doing,  or  to  im- 
press them  with  the  majesty  of  the  law.  But  in 
the  schools  no  teacher  is  permitted  to  inflict  bodily 
punishment.  No  cats-of-nine-tails  infest  a  Jap- 
anese class-room,  and  even  a  box  on  the  ear  would 
render  liable  to  arrest  for  assault  and  battery. 
The  writer  is  not  sure  that  the  of&cers  on  board  a 
Japanese  merchant  ship  never  lay  a  chastening 
hand  or  a  rope's  end  upon  fractious  members  of 
their  crew;  but  such  a  proceeding  would  be 
irregular  and  accomiDanied  with  considerable  risk. 
At  all  events,  no  foreign  captain  in  his  normal 
senses  would  think  of  employing  the  rough  and 
ready  ship's  discipline  of  the  British  mercantile 
marine,  as  described  in  popular  tales  of  the  sea, 


134  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

upon  a  Japanese  crew,  and  most  undreamable 
would  this  be  in  tke  case  of  a  Missionary  Captain. 

To  preserve  strict  discipline  by  an  appeal  to  the 
reason,  conscience  and  sense  of  honour  of  even  a 
good  crew  is  no  easy  task.  The  makeshift  crew 
which  manned  the  FuJcuin  Maru  on  her  maiden 
voyage  proved  unreliable  and  unsatisfactory 
enough,  and  added  much  to  the  trouble  and  heart- 
ache of  the  Captain  during  the  difficult  early  years 
of  the  Mission.  Their  conduct  on  shore,  also, 
when  the  ship  lay  at  anchor  for  Gospel  work, 
brought  a  bad  name  on  the  vessel,  and  tended  to 
render  nugatory  the  Captain's  labour.  Down  in 
his  sailor  heart,  accustomed  to  the  stern  and  effect- 
ive treatment  of  turbulent  mariners  on  the  west- 
ern main,  he  must  often  have  sighed,  "  Oh,  that  I 
might  lay  my  hand  to  a  good  old-fashioned  marlin- 
spike,  that  I  might  teach  these  sons  of  Belial  not  to 
transgress !  "  On  one  occasion  matters  got  so  bad 
that  the  whole  crew  had  to  be  dismissed. 

But  there  were  mellowing  influences  at  work 
upon  the  hearts  of  these  rough,  hardened,  unprom- 
ising sailor  lads.  The  mingled  firmness  and  kind- 
ness of  the  foreign  skipper ;  the  Christian  home  life 
which  the  little  vessel  housed,  with  the  gentle 
goodness  of  the  Lady  of  the  Cabin,  and  the  play 
and  prattle  of  the  children;  the  daily  morning 
worship,  some  half  understood  words  of  the  new 
Teaching,  the  evident  earnestness  and  sincerity  of 
the  missionary,  something  about  the  work  or  the 
workers  began  to  soften  their  hearts.  One  after 
another  they  began  to  listen,  to  enquire,  to  show 
signs  of  a  changed  life.  To  narrate  how,  from 
being  the  disgrace  of  the  ship,  and  the  despair  of 


THE  TEA:N"SF0EMATI0N  of  the  CEEW    135 

lier  Captain,  they  became  her  glory  and  his  com- 
fort and  Joy,  is  the  purpose  of  this  chapter,  and 
this  can  best  be  done  by  borrowing  from  the  Cap- 
tain's log. 

The  first  of  the  Seven  Sailors  to  show  signs  of  a 
change  of  heart  was  a  lad  from  Sanuki  Province, 
on  the  Island  of  Shikoku,  by  name 

Kida  Etaro. 

Old  Glory  is  half-mast  high  in  the  westerly  gale  to-day. 
''The  wind  will  fray  the  fly  of  that  flag  off!"  says  the 
boatswain.  ''Let  it  fray,  Bo'sn,"  said  we,  "for  it  suits 
our  mood ! '  ^    This  on  a  day  last  winter. 

The  Mission  Ship  had  started  bright  and  early  that 
day.  Wind  there  was  none,  and  none  was  expected. 
We  crept  along  through  the  narrow  channels,  partly 
sailing,  partly  towing  the  vessel  with  our  launch,  when 
suddenly  down  came  a  snow-squall  off  the  high  hills, 
and  then  a  lull,  then  another  squall,  with  the  weight 
of  which  we  shot  out  into  the  open,  picldng  up  the 
launch  as  we  passed  and  then  towing  her  in  turn.  Squall 
followed  squall.  Keef  after  reef  was  taken.  The  hills 
and  rocks  were  wiped  out  of  sight  by  the  snow  as  it 
drove  and  swirled.  An  hour  more  and  we  were  in  sore 
plight,  sea  steadily  rising,  wind  steadily  increasing. 
The  launch  towing  astern  was  every  moment  more  seri- 
ously endangered.  To  hoist  her  on  board  is  impossible. 
We  watch  anxiously  the  sailor  lad  who  sits  in  her,  steer- 
ing, and  try  to  encourage  him  and  ourselves  by  an 
occasional  word  of  good  cheer.  Five  minutes  more  and 
we  shall  be  under  shelter!  We  shout  and  point  to  the 
dimly  seen  line  of  hills  under  which  we  hope  to  round 
up  in  safety.  Just  then  with  the  onrush  of  a  heavy 
"fourth  sea"  the  launch  gives  an  ominous  yaw,  and 
snap  goes  one  of  the  stout  tow-ropes.  If  the  other  rope 
snaps  the  launch  and  man  both  are  lost.     We  know  that, 


136  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

so  does  he.  He  with  all  a  sailor's  pluck  goes  to  refasten 
the  broken  tow-rope,  when  with  a  sudden  heave  he  is 
thrown  bodily  overboard.  Eocks  on  either  side  make 
' '  bringing  the  ship  to ' '  all  but  impossible.  The  attempt 
is  made  despite  the  danger,  and  a  boat  gets  away  with 
much  difficulty.  For  three  long,  weary  hours  in  the 
heavy  sea  we  search  for  our  shipmate,  but  to  no  purpose. 
Stiff  with  cold,  drenched  with  spray  and  driving  sleet,  it 
was  a  sorry  company  that  knelt  around  the  skylight  in 
the  falling  snow,  with  bared  heads,  to  commit  their 
comrade  to  God.  There  were  no  dry  eyes  there,  not  even 
those  of  the  case-hardened  skipper.  Then  after  a  brief 
struggle  with  wind  and  wave  our  vessel  was  brought 
into  safety,  and  a  three  days'  search  for  the  body  of  our 
friend  began,  only  to  end  in  failure.  It  is  a  long  story, 
that  of  the  search,  and  the  breaking  of  the  news  to  the 
widowed  wife  and  old  father  by  one  of  the  men,  who,  in 
true  sailor  fashion,  went  bravely  to  his  task,  then  broke 
down  like  a  child  and  from  that  very  fact  did  it  all  the 
better.     Enough  of  this! 

The  man?  Who  was  he?  A  lad  named  Kida  Etaro 
from  Sanuki  Province,  on  the  main  south  island.  He 
joined  the  ship  at  the  beginning,  and  with  the  rest  led 
an  evil  life;  gambled,  drank,  squandered,  thieved,  lied 
and  what  not!  The  Mission  Ship  was  in  bad  grace,  or 
rather  disgrace.  The  missionarj^  skipper  had  a  sore 
heart.  Some  sneered,  some  blamed,  some  few  under- 
stood and  pitied,  while  the  men,  with  oriental  assurance, 
thinking  he  knew  nothing  of  their  evil  ways,  took  him 
for  an  easy  dupe.  The  skipper  prayed,  and  waited,  and 
prayed  again. 

A  change  came.  Kida  Etaro  changed.  Others  seemed 
to  change  too,  but  this  man  certainly  did.  He  first,  then 
the  others,  asked  for  baptism.  We  felt  the  need  of  cau- 
tion, and  put  them  off,  but  finally  consented  that  he,  at 
least,  should  be  baptized;  yet  now — it  was  too  late,  he 
had  gone,  gone  home,  yes,  home!    His  example  was  to, 


THE  TEANSFOEMATION  OF  THE  CEEW    137 

have  helped  the  others,  so  planned  the  skipper;  and 
now — he  was  gone!  The  skipper's  heart  was  sore.  So 
when  Old  Glory,  half-mast  high,  frayed  in  the  gale  that 
day,  what  wonder  he  replied,  ''Let  it  fray,  Bo'sn,  for 
it  suits  our  mood." 

The  Sequel: — Some  four  months  have  passed.  The 
Mission  Ship  is  snug  in  a  wee,  land-locked  harbour  on  a 
sunny,  laughing  day.  The  men  have,  of  their  own  ac- 
cord, * '  dressed  ship, ' '  i.  e.,  put  flags  from  the  mastheads 
to  the  deck.  Friends  come  doAvn  and  all  hearts  are  glad. 
The  launch  is  filled  with  visiting  friends  and  towing  a 
boatful  astern  glides  down  the  narrow  bay  to  a  quiet 
spot.  A  hymn  of  praise  is  sung,  a  prayer  ascends.  A 
moment's  solemn  hush,  in  w^hich  we  feel  that  God  is 
near,    and   then — "In   the   name   of   the   Father,    the 

Son *'  comes  the  voice  of  the  officiating  missionary 

on  the  still  air,  and  the  first  converts  from  the  Mission 
Ship  are  buried  in  the  baptismal  waters  of  the  very  sea 
on  which  they  lived  their  evil  lives.  The  first  ?  No,  not 
so,  for  their  shipmate,  Kida  Etaro,  entered  into  life 
through  the  same  waters  of  the  beautiful  Inland  Sea  of 
Japan  and  led  the  way.  We  returned  quietly  to  the 
ship,  and  there,  after  a  word  of  praise  and  thanksgiving, 
a  memorial  brass  plate  was  affixed  to  the  mainmast : 

Kida  Etaro,  Seaman,  Died  Believing  in  God. 

While  Serving  His  Country  in  the  Cause  of  Christ 

He  was  Lost  at  Sea. 

He  That  Believeth  in  Me,  Though 

He  Were  Dead,  Yet  Shall  He  Live. 

Thus  reads  the  legend.    And  so  ended  a  happy  day. 

This  happy  day,  which  witnessed  the  first  bap- 
tismal service  in  the  Inland  Sea,  was  April  18, 
1903,  the  day  before  the  Captain  sailed  from  Kobe 
on  his  first  brief  furlough.  That  he  had  been  per- 
mitted to  see  the  first-fruits  of  the  Islands  unto 


138  CAPTAIK  BICKEL 

Clirist,  so  long  before  results  of  his  work  were 
to  be  expected,  and  that  these  first  believers  were 
members  of  his  own  crew,  men  who  had  seemed 
hopelessly  depraved  and  hardened,  must  have  been 
a  great  joy  to  the  Captain's  heart,  a  promise  and 
prophecy  of  great  triumphs  of  the  Gospel  among 
the  Island  people  in  the  years  to  come.  "They 
were  the  first  tokens  of  the  ingathering  that  in 
God's  time  must  come,  reminding  us  in  their  early 
appearing  of  some  chance  fruit  tree,  that  stands 
alone  in  blossom  among  its  fellows  in  early  spring." 
One  of  the  sailors  whose  hearts  were  touched  by 
Kida'S  death,  and  who  became  the  first-fruits  of  the 
Inland  Sea  Mission,  was  the  boatswain,  Hirata. 
The  story  of  his  conversion  and  subsequent  Chris- 
tian life  is  a  most  interesting  chapter  in  the  Trans- 
forming of  the  Crew.  Of  all  the  seven  he  seemed 
the  most  abandoned,  the  most  hopeless,  and  of  them 
all  he  became  the  most  conspicuous  example  of  the 
saving  power  of  the  Gospel.  The  history  of  the 
Inland  Sea  Mission  would  be  incomplete  without 
the  narrative  of  the  Awakening  of  Hirata,  a  true 
tale  of  the  sea,  and  one  which  illustrates  both  the 
utter  sincerity  of  the  Inland  Sea  work,  and  the 
transforming  power  of  the  grace  of  God.  Hirata, 
"  a  short,  ugly  faced  little  fellow,  built  in  a  Imnp," 
clambered  up  over  the  stern  of  the  vessel  one  snap- 
ping cold  winter  day,  looking  for  a  job.  But  let 
us  hear  from  the  skipper's  own  lips, 

The  Boatswain's  Story. 

**He  came  in  through  the  hawsepipe,"  is  a  suggestive 
nautical  phrase.  My  friend  Hirata  San  did  not;  he 
came  in  over  the  stern,  literally.    The  dsLj  was  cold,  a 


THE  TEANSFOEMATION  OF  THE  CEEW    139 

good  winter  snap  was  on.  That  fact  presupposed 
clothes!  All  he  had  to  support  the  dignity  of  his 
allegiance  to  the  Mikado  was  half  a  shirt  and  a  loin  cloth, 
things  acquired,  and  a  shock  of  hair  throv/n  in  by  nature. 
He  turned  his  toes  in  and  made  obeisance  most  elo- 
quently. His  bow  fairly  spoke.  It  said,  "I'll  do  you 
the  first  chance  I  get  and  I  won't  be  long  in  getting  one." 
His  crafty  eyes  looked  straight  in  the  direction  of  the 
eight  cardinal  points  of  the  compass  all  at  once.  He 
claimed  consideration  on  the  ground  that  he  had  a 
brother  on  the  ship.  That  only  made  things  worse. 
The  brother  was  bad  enough  in  all  conscience.  No,  we 
did  not  w^ant  him.  But  he  kept  his  eight-point  eye  on 
us,  and  the  next  time  we  needed  a  man  he  was  there 
waiting. 

Well,  he  had  one  virtue  at  least,  he  was  openly,  cheer- 
fully evil.  He  and  the  devil  went  watch  and  watch. 
He  gambled,  stole  and  lied  by  preference.  He  drank 
heavily  and  loved  to  fight,  for  was  he  not  a  jiujitsu 
expert  of  seven  years'  training?  All  this  he  did  and 
worse. 

Man  has  a  soul,  they  say.  We  tried  to  find  his,  tried 
for  two  years,  but  never  got  a  glimpse.  He  came  to  the 
ship's  daily  worship  with  the  rest,  bowed  his  head  like 
a  saint  and  looked  out  of  his  eight-point  eyeS  at  the  rest 
of  the  crew  all  at  once  with  a  wink  to  which  they  re- 
sponded. When  it  was  all  over  they  went  away  forward 
and  laughed  at  the  fun.  Being  of  sailor  build,  we  had 
seen  a  craft  or  two  since  we  first  sailed  deep  water,  but 
for  straight  e^dl-doing  the  Mission  Ship  outsailed  them 
all.  Morally,  spiritually,  it  was  bedlam  with  the  lid 
off,  and  our  friend  was  the  man  who  held  the  lid.  Used 
to  a  hard  road  though  we  were,  our  heart  was  sore  at 
the  condition  of  things.  What  had  we  come  for  but  to 
change  such  men  as  these?  and  yet  change  there  was 
none.  Long  and  deep  were  the  searchings  of  heart. 
Did  we  so  utterly  fail  to  represent  the  Master  that 


UO  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

these  men  were  not  held  in  check,  by  shame  at  least,  if 
not  by  conviction? 

This  lasted  two  years,  and  then  something  happened. 
One  of  the  men  fell  overboard  in  a  winter  gale  and  was 
drowned.  God  used  this  to  move  our  friend's  heart. 
He  began  to  inquire,  but  how?  Must  he  learn  English? 
No.  Would  he  not  have  to  go  to  school  and  study  be- 
fore he  could  find  any  help  from  Christianity?  So 
little  impression  had  the  two  years  on  the  ship  made! 
Ignorant  to  the  extent  of  not  being  able  to  read  or  write 
the  simple  Japanese  lianas  or  s^^llable  alphabet,  morally 
crooked  in  all  his  ways,  was  there  any  hope  of  his  being 
changed?  In  deep  disappointment,  almost  with  dis- 
gust, we  answered  his  inquiries.  We  did  not  believe 
him  sincere  then  nor  did  we  later  on  when  he  professed 
faith  in  Christ. 

We  refused  baptism,  but  there  was  a  change,  even 
we  could  not  deny  it ;  yes,  a  change  at  last,  slight  indeed, 
but  growing  in  force  continually  until  the  old  man  be- 
came completely  new.  No  mere  figure  of  speech  or 
saintly  cant  is  this,  but  hard  solid  fact.  He  was 
changed  from  the  gambling,  lying,  thieving,  quarrel- 
some, ignorant  tool  of  the  Evil  One  to  a  true  child  of 
God.  No  miracles  these  days,  say  some!  No,  not  if 
this  is  not  one.  The  quarrelsome  man  became  the 
peacemaker,  and  the  man  of  evil  life  an  example  to  all. 
So  far  so  good! 

''Captain,"  said  an  Islander  one  day,  *'I  enjoyed  the 
talk  immensely  last  night." 

''Whose  talk?" 

"Why,  Hirata  San,  as  you  know,  has  been  preaching 
every  night  for  a  week  in  this  village."  As  a  matter 
of  fact  we  did  not  know.  That  was  the  beginning  but 
by  no  means  the  end.  In  the  measure  of  his  previous 
degradation  was  his  conviction  of  sin.  In  the  measure 
of  this  conviction  were  his  appreciation  of  God's  won- 
drous mercy  and  his  longing  to  render  service  of  love. 


THE  TEANSFOEMATIOK  OF  THE  CEEW    141 

We  tried  to  teach  him  but  failed.  He  was  outside 
our  methods  somehow.  But  he  pored  over  the  old  Book 
of  books  in  every  spare  moment,  and  so  we  left  him  to 
God's  spirit.  The  harsh  hands  became  gentle  in  serv- 
ice for  others.  The  pride  of  other  days  became  loving 
humility  that  would  not  be  refused.  The  shrewdness  of 
evil  times  turned  to  a  remarkable  thoughtfulness  and 
resourcefulness  in  finding  ways  of  service.  Added  to  all 
he  developed  a  remarkable  ability  to  hold  a  mixed  audi- 
ence with  his  powerful  presentation  of  God's  love  and 
mercy. 

Long  had  we  desired  some  systematic  plan  for  col- 
portage  work  in  the  Islands.  A  word  spoken  in  jest  gave 
the  needed  clue.  We  were  lowering  a  boat  together. 
''How  did  you  fare  with  your  meeting  last  night?"  we 
asked. 

''Oh,  very  well  indeed,"  said  he.  "We  shall  have 
to  get  you  a  little  mission  ship,"  said  we  in  jest,  "if  you 
keep  on  like  this." 

"Yes,"  said  he,  in  jest  also,  pointing  to  a  little  Jap- 
anese sailing  craft,  ' '  one  like  that. ' ' 

That  night  we  did  some  thinking  and  praying.  The 
result,  together  with  the  generosity  of  some  friends, 
was  that  a  little  vessel  was  built  and  Hirata  San  was 
placed  in  charge  of  her  to  carry  on  colportage  work  in 
the  many  islands  we  visit. 

When  the  little  ship  was  launched  we  stood  on  the 
beach  and  watched  him  as  he  worked  up  to  his  waist 
in  water.  The  tears  were  streaming  down  his  face  as  he 
worked.  He  was  overwhelmed  with  the  thought  of 
God's  mercy  in  bringing  him  up  out  of  the  depths.  A 
foreman  shipwright  stood  by  who  had  known  him  of 
old,  and  said,  "Let  him  alone,  he  has  a  vile  temper.  He 
is  so  mad  that  the  tears  are  running  down  his  face,  be- 
cause the  vessel  is  stuck  a  bit  on  the  chocks.  He  is  dan- 
gerous at  such  times." 

Three  years  later  that  same  foreman  was  baptized, 


142  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

having  been  led  to  Christ  by  our  friend.  After  a  most 
astonishing  profession  of  faith  made  before  the  believers 
assembled  on  the  Fukuin  Maru's  deck,  he  suddenly 
turned  to  us  and  said,  ''And,  Captain,  I  now  know  what 
those  tears  meant/' 

Hirata  San,  the  gentle,  humble,  ever-faithful  servant 
of  God  and  his  fellow-men,  still  lives  and  serves.  May 
God  grant  him  many  days! 

In  another  place,  in  describing  the  activities  of 
the  Colportage  Vessel,  Fukuin  Maru  No,  2,  Cap- 
tain Bickel  speaks  thus  of  his  former  boatswain: 

"  The  colporter-evangelist  who  is  at  the  same 
time  sailing  master  is  a  joy  to  our  heart.  He  him- 
self is  a  living  product  of  Bible  influence.  He 
came  to  me  as  one  who  was,  humanly  speaking, 
hopeless.  Ignorant  and  evil  in  all  his  ways,  all 
that  we  might  do  seemed  without  effect.  When  at 
last  a  desire  for  knowledge  came  to  him,  his  abso- 
lute ignorance  and  lack  of  mental  training  seemed 
to  be  a  hopeless  bar  to  his  understanding,  and  yet 
we  saw  a  marvellous  change  and  rapid  growth. 
The  secret  lay  in  the  one  fact,  as  we  afterward 
found,  that  he  used  every  spare  moment  to  pore 
over  his  Bible,  and  at  times  half  the  night  long 
would  spell  out  the  words  and  pray  and  think  until 
the  tears  ran  down  his  face.  Not  the  least  of  the 
strange  changes  in  him  is  the  fact  that  he  can  hold 
a  mixed  audience  for  an  hour  or  two  with  his 
strong  presentation  of  God's  power  to  change  men's 
lives." 

The  efforts  of  the  Captain  and  of  the  evangelists 
to  explain  the  Christian  doctrines  to  this  eager 
seeker  after  truth  were  futile.  "  We  tried  to  teach 
him,  but  failed.    He  was  outside  our  methods, 


C 
o 


o 

bo 

a 
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s 


o 

pq 


THE  TEANSFOEMATION  OF  THE  CEEW    143 

someliow.  And  so  we  left  Mm  to  God.'^  And  God 
Himself  spoke  to  him  througli  His  word,  as  lie 
prayed  and  wept  above  it.  But  first  God  liad 
spoken  to  him  througli  the  Captain  himself. 

In  many  entries  in  the  Captain's  log  we  meet 
Bo's'n  Hirata,  and  always  as  a  hmiible  and  faithful 
Christian,  and  an  earnest  worker.  It  is  he  who 
with  gentleness,  tenderness,  tact,  wisdom  and  fine 
feeling  ministered  to  the  dead  and  the  living  at  the 
funeral  of  Nagai  Minora.  Three  years  after  his 
baptism  we  find  him  so  zealous  and  successful  in 
evangelistic  efforts  that  a  whole  group  of  villages 
is  entrusted  to  him,  that  he  may  teach  them  the 
Gospel.  As  he  preaches  to  a  crowd  one  night. 
Captain  Kobayashi  stands  with  Captain  Bickel  in  a 
dark  corner,  listening  in  wonder  at  the  eloquence 
of  this  unlettered  sailor,  and  says,  "  Captain,  I 
don't  understand  it,  but  that  is  what  you  people  call 
the  power  of  God.  I  wish  you  would  let  him  come 
and  speak  to  my  students.''  It  was  this  twice-born 
Hirata,  "this  half-sized  sinner  with  a  big  sense 
of  shame  and  a  big  appreciation  of  God's  mercy," 
this  saint  of  the  forecastle,  who  at  the  deck-house 
door  at  three  bells  of  the  middle  watch,  when  the 
Captain  had  just  returned  from  one  of  his  nightly 
tramps  across  the  hills,  said  in  reply  to  the  request 
that  he  convey  a  Bible  to  a  certain  man  in  the 
morning,  "He  is  not  ready  yet  for  this  Bible, 
but  he  has  another.  You  are  his  Bible.  He  is 
watching  you.  As  you  fail  Christ  fails ;  as  you  live 
Christ  so  Christ  is  revealed  to  him." 

Emphatically  was  our  Missionary-Skipper  the  in- 
carnate Gospel,  the  visible  Christ,  to  the  men  of 
his  own  crew,  and  because  he  lived  before  them 


144  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

tlie  Christ  he  preached,  those  hardened  and  dis- 
solute sailors,  seemingly  the  most  hopeless  of  all 
whose  salvation  the  Captain  sought,  became  the 
first-fruits  of  the  Inland  Sea  Mission.  Henceforth 
we  find  them  brethren  beloved  and  helpers  in  the 
Gospel,  and  none  more  beloved  and  helpful  than 
Captain  Hirata,  of  the  Fukuin  Maru,  No,  2,  sailing 
his  little  Japanese  craft  among  the  Islands — 
preacher,  colporter,  and  Christian  mariner. 

In  the  Log  of  the  Fukuin  Maru  are  many  tales 
like  that  of  the  Awakening  of  Hirata,  and  still 
others  in  The  Log  That  is  Kept  on  High,  of  the 
power  of  the  old  Gospel  as  shown  in  the  work  on 
the  Inland  Sea.  The  Gospel  narrative  may  have 
but  a  small  nucleus  of  fact,  as  some  professed 
Seekers  after  Truth  would  fain,  with  a  great  show 
of  learning,  persuade  us  to  believe;  but  while  the 
true  story  of  Bo's'n  Hirata  can  be  duplicated  every 
day  on  every  mission  field  there  will  be  a  great 
many  of  us  unreasonable  and  simple-minded  enough 
to  take  our  chances  on  it.  Seriously,  these  Twice- 
Born  Men  are  the  fulfillment  of  our  Lord's  promise 
to  His  disciples,  "  Greater  works  than  these  shall 
ye  do,''  and  are,  in  every  age  and  every  land  where 
the  Gospel  is  preached,  the  incontrovertible  j)roof 
of  its  divine  origin.  If  every  miracle  recorded  by 
the  four  Evangelists  could  be  proved  to  be  im- 
aginary, there  are  enough  miracles  of  a  high  spiri- 
tual order  wrought  every  year  in  Japan,  China, 
India  or  Africa  to  afford  vivid  and  conclusive  proof 
of  Christ's  Saviourhood,  and  of  His  continued  pres- 
ence with  His  people. 


XII 

SHEPHERDS  OF  THE  ISLES 

IT  is  a  missionary  truism  tliat  the  evangeliza- 
tion and  Cliristianization  of  any  race  must 
be,  in  tlie  main,  the  task  of  men  of  tliat  race. 
Jewish  missionaries  brought  the  Gospel  into 
Europe,  but  it  was  not  the  Jews  who  converted 
the  Greeks,  nor  the  Greeks  the  Latins,  nor  the 
Latins  the  Celts  and  Saxons.  The  conversion  to 
Christianity  of  the  East  is  not  the  task  of  the 
West,  but  of  the  men  of  the  East  who  have  become 
the  first-fruits  of  the  Gospel  in  India,  China  and 
Japan.  So  soon  as  the  Christian  propaganda  in 
any  country  has  gained  some  momentum,  when  a 
few  converts  have  been  gathered,  some  little 
churches  organized.  Christian  schools  established, 
and  there  begin  to  api^ear  among  the  native  Chris- 
tians those  who  have  received  gifts  from  the  great 
Head  of  the  Church,  fitting  them  to  become  the 
spiritual  leaders  of  their  own  people,  the  wise 
missionary  will  transfer  to  them,  as  rapidly  as 
possible,  the  responsibility  of  the  work.  He  must 
decrease,  and  they  must  increase.  And  their  in- 
crease will  be  his  deepest  joy,  for  it  is  the  proof  of 
the  success  of  his  own  mission. 

None  knew  better  than  Captain  Bickel  that  it 

145 


UQ  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

was  by  the  lips  and  lives  of  Japanese  Christians 
the  Islanders  of  the  Inner  and  Outer  Seas  must 
be  evangelized  and  transformed.  Indeed  the  great 
bulk  of  the  work  must  be  done,  he  realized,  not 
merely  by  Japanese,  but  by  Island  Japanese,  each 
new  convert  to  Christianity  becoming  in  his  meas- 
ure a  missionary  to  his  own  island,  his  own  village. 
For  this  reason  it  was  part  of  his  plan  of  work  to 
associate  with  himself  only  a  few  supported  help- 
ers, evangelists  who,  at  first  at  least,  must  come 
to  him  from  mission  stations  on  the  mainland,  and 
through  them  to  bring  every  j)ossible  influence  to 
bear  upon  the  Islanders  who  accepted  the  Gospel 
to  lead  them  to  personal  active  service  for  Christ. 
One  supported  evangelist  for  each  of  the  five  or  six 
districts  into  which  he  had  divided  his  parish,  and, 
if  it  might  be,  one  assistant  evangelist  in  each,  was 
the  maximum  number  of  helpers,  or  associate 
evangelists,  which  he  allowed  himself  to  desire. 
Of  these,  the  assistants,  the  second  man  for  each 
of  the  districts,  remained  an  ideal,  a  hope,  the  mis- 
sion funds  available  not  being  sufOicient  to  provide 
them  a  living.  Five  men,  then,  under  the  Great 
Shepherd  of  the  sheep,  who  has  compassion  on  the 
multitudes  when  He  sees  them  unshepherded,  must 
be  the  spiritual  leaders  and  feeders  of  the  Island 
Folk,  each  one  seeking  with  the  aid  the  vessel  can 
afford,  and  with  the  aid  which  only  the  Divine 
Spirit  can  afford,  to  give  a  knowledge  of  the  Gos- 
pel to  an  average  population  of  some  350,000.  No 
one  can  say  the  Inland  Sea  Mission  is  overmanned ! 
At  the  outset,  when  the  Fukuin  Maru  made  her 
first  mission  cruise,  there  was  but  a  single  Japanese 
evangelist  with  Captain  Bickel,    He  had  a  cabin 


SHEPHEKDS  OF  THE  ISLES  147 

on  the  vessel,  and  was  a  sort  of  chaplain,  conduct- 
ing tKe  daily  v/orshij)  of  the  shij)'s  company,  and 
explaining  the  teachings  of  Christianity  to  the  fre- 
quent visitors.  When  a  village  was  visited  he  was, 
like  Paul  at  Lystra,  the  chief  speaker,  and  the 
Captain  his  assistant.  By  and  by,  in  the  most 
easterly  group  of  islands,  among  which  the  vessel 
had  made  her  first  round  of  visits,  the  work  had 
gained  sufQ.cient  footing  to  make  it  feasible  to 
place  there  a  permanent  evangelist.  A  town 
adapted  to  become  a  centre  of  work  for  the  whole 
district  was  chosen,  and  an  evangelist  placed  in 
residence  there,  to  devote  his  whole  strength  to 
this  group  of  islands,  carrying  perhaps  300,000 
people.  By  and  by  another  centre  was  established 
in  the  next  westerly  group  of  islands,  with  another 
evangelist  in  charge;  till  presently  the  whole  In- 
land Sea  had  been  divided  into  four  districts,  each 
with  its  resident  evangelist.  Last  of  all  was  added 
the  Southwestern  Division,  of  the  island  groups 
of  the  deep  sea.  Thus  were  inducted  into  their 
bishoprics  the  Five  Baptist  Bishops  of  the  Inland 
Sea  Mission,  the  Shepherds  of  the  Isles,  each  one 
responsible  for  all  the  work  carried  on  in  his  dis- 
trict; each  one  responsible,  to  the  limit  of  his 
ability,  for  the  evangelization  of  several  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  souls. 

Henceforth  the  Gospel  light  was  shining  not 
from  the  Little  White  Ship  only,  threading  the 
Island  channels  and  casting  a  transient  beam  on 
one  village  and  another,  but  from  five  centres,  in  a 
constant  and  steady  glow.  From  group  to  group 
goes  the  vessel,  bringing  comfort  and  encourage- 
ment and  inspiration  to  the  evangelists,  and  to  the 


148  CAPTAIK  BICKEL 

little  companies  of  believers  who  have  been  gath- 
ered. When  the  ship  comes  to  Setoda,  for  example, 
the  centre  for  the  second  group  westward,  Pastor 
Ito,  who  is  in  residence  there,  is  taken  on  board, 
and  the  ship  makes  a  round  of  all  the  villages 
within  his  circuit,  the  fifteen  or  twenty  places 
where  he  has  been  holding  regular  meetings,  and 
others  which  were  beyond  his  reach.  Pastor  Ito 
is  brought  back  to  his  home  in  Setoda,  some  spe- 
cial meetings  are  perhaps  held  there,  as  it  is  an 
important  town,  and  then  the  prow^  is  turned  to 
the  next  group,  where  a  like  program  is  followed. 
Thus  each  of  our  Five  Shepherds,  while  enjoying  a 
position  of  trust  and  honour,  and  stimulated  to 
earnest  effort  by  the  sense  of  responsibility,  feels 
that  he  is  part  of  a  larger  work,  and  at  each  visit 
of  the  ship  receives  new  comfort  and  encourage- 
ment and  inspiration  for  his  arduous  toil.  Cap- 
tain Bickel  was  a  true  Over-Shepherd  to  all  of 
them.  He  carried  them  all  in  his  heart,  and  they 
found  in  him  unfailing  sympathy  and  help. 

In  those  trying  first  years  of  the  Inland  Sea 
work  our  Captain  had  some  heart-breaking  experi- 
ences with  his  evangelistic  helpers,  as  well  as  with 
his  crew.  The  trained  and  tried  men  w^hom  he 
needed  were  too  useful  where  they  were  to  be 
easily  released  to  serve  the  new  mission.  It  takes 
a  deal  of  altruism  to  pry  a  missionary  loose  from 
a  reliable,  experienced  evangelist,  on  whom  tlie 
success  of  the  work  in  some  section  of  his  field 
seems  to  depend. 

The  man  who  accompanied  Captain  Bickel  on 
his  first  cruise,  though  unprepossessing  in  appear- 
ance and  poorly  educated,  was  an  earnest  fellow, 


SHEPHEEDS  OF  THE  ISLES  149 

with  a  good  degree  of  native  ability,  and  an  accept- 
able speaker.  He  was  not  daunted  by  the  hard- 
shijjs  and  hard  Avork  which  his  position  brought 
him.  His  words  went  home  to  the  hearts  of  the 
Islanders.  But  there  was  a  bad  streak  in  his 
moral  nature,  not  fully  removed  by  grace,  and  he 
failed  to  live  uj)  to  the  standard  of  truth  and  hon- 
esty which  a  Christian  worker  must  maintain. 
This  flaw  lost  him  his  opportunity  to  be  numbered 
among  the  Shepherds  of  the  Isles.  He  came  back 
to  Yokohama  in  disgrace.  He  repented  of  his 
fault,  and  confessed  it  before  the  church  with 
strong  crying  and  tears.  For  a  while  he  ran  well. 
Then  some  new  temptation  overcame  him.  But 
the  Good  Shepherd  did  not  forget  him.  While  on 
the  Islands,  among  others  who  were  impressed  by 
his  words  was  a  young  man,  principal  of  one  of  the 
Island  schools.  He  followed  the  light  and  eventu- 
ally came  out  a  bright  earnest  Christian.  He  was 
deprived  of  his  position,  and  disowned  by  his  par- 
ents and  friends.  He  became  a  humble  i)edlar, 
tramping  the  Island  paths  pack  on  back.  Then 
he  was  given  a  position  as  colporter,  and  trami^ed 
the  hills  with  Bibles  in  his  pack.  Finally  he  came 
to  Yokohama  to  prepare  for  the  ministry.  He  re- 
membered the  evangelist  from  Yokohama  from 
whose  lips  he  had  first  heard  the  Gospel.  He 
sought  him  out,  and  brought  him  back  to  the  com- 
pany of  Christian  people.  If  still  a  weak  and 
erring  brother,  let  us  hope  he  hears  in  his  heart 
the  voice  of  the  Great  Shepherd,  and  follows, 
though  afar  off. 

Another  of  the  Captain's  associates  in  the  work, 
during  those  early  years,  and  one  who  gave  him 


150  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

more  comfort,  was  Mr.  Imai,  who  was  tlie  evangelist 
on  the  ship  her  third  year  among  the  Islands.  Mr. 
Imai's  story,  related  often  by  himself  with  telling 
effect  as  an  apologia  for  Christianity,  is  a  most 
interesting  one,  and  w^orthy  a  place  in  the  Annals 
of  Missions,  but  cannot  be  included  within  the 
limits  set  for  this  book.  He  had  been  a  Buddhist 
priest,  holding  a  position  of  importance  in  the  sect 
to  which  he  belonged.  The  kindness  and  earnest- 
ness of  a  Baptist  pastor  in  Kobe,  and  a  sermon  by 
the  late  Dr.  Deforest  of  Sendai,  were  among  the 
means  God  used  for  his  conversion.  He  became  a 
Christian  evangelist  of  unusual  power.  The 
familiarity  with  Buddhist  doctrine,  and  the  train- 
ing in  moral  and  religious  ideas,  which  he  had 
gained  in  the  priests'  schools,  and  the  experience 
in  public  work  which  his  position  as  priest  had 
brought  him,  stood  him  in  good  stead  as  a  Chris- 
tian i)reacher.  He  has  a  very  pleasing  address, 
and  a  remarkable  gift  of  language.  He  is  every- 
where listened  to  Vvdth  delight,  and  is  in  great  de- 
mand as  a  public  speaker  on  all  sorts  of  religious 
occasions.  During  the  writer's  visit  to  the  ship 
in  1902  he  heard  Mr.  Imai  address  the  village 
meetings  many  times.  According  to  Captain 
BickeFs  policy,  the  same  theme  and  the  same  line 
of  thought  was  presented  in  every  village,  but  the 
preacher's  manner  and  style  were  so  pleasing,  and 
his  ideas  were  presented  with  such  a  variety  of 
argument  and  anecdote,  or  at  least  of  language, 
that  one  never  w^earied  of  listening  to  him.  Cap- 
tain Bickel  found  in  him  a  trustworthy  and  efficient 
associate.  But  Mr.  Imai  felt  that  he  was  called 
to  devote  his  life  to  a  different  kind  of  work  from 


SHEPHEEDS  OF  THE  ISLES  151 

that  the  Islands  offered,  and  i)resently  returned 
to  the  mainland.  Both  with  tongue  and  pen  he  is 
doing  a  si^lendid  work  for  the  Baptist  cause  in 
Japan,  and  for  the  cause  of  Christ  generally. 

Another  early  Island  evangelist  was  Nagai 
Minoru.  A  desire  to  learn  English  brought  him 
under  missionary  influence.  He  had  no  wish, 
along  with  English,  to  absorb  Christianity.  He 
bore  himself  as  one  of  those  righteous  ones  who 
need  no  repentance.  "  A  Pharisee  of  Pharisees  '^ 
was  he,  according  to  Captain  Bickel.  But  from 
the  despised  Cross  there  flashed  forth  upon  him 
a  new  light,  in  which  he  stood  revealed  to  himself. 
He  became  the  disciple  and  messenger  of  the  newly 
discovered  Saviour.  His  space  of  service  among 
the  Islands  was  brief.  He  fell  a  victim  to  the 
white  plague.  Medical  and  hospital  treatment 
proved  unavailing,  and  he  returned  to  his  home  in 
Shozu  Shima,  to  die  among  his  own  people  and 
among  the  Islanders  whom  he  loved.  In  the  Log 
of  the  Fukuin  Mam  we  have  no  account  of  his 
labours,  which  were  brief  and  perhaps  ineffectual, 
but  only  of  his  death  and  burial. 

**The  day  was  not  yet  done,  another  duty  awaited  us. 
We  must  go  to  visit  a  dying  Christian  brother.  We  had 
not  seen  him  for  months.  The  grip  of  an  intense  suffer- 
ing lay  hard  upon  him,  we  heard.  Longing,  as  we  often 
long,  that  the  old  sailor  in  us  could  be  turned  by  some 
means  into  the  spiritual  adviser  and  missionary  we 
should  be,  and  searching  the  corners  of  our  soul  for  some 
message  of  comfort,  we  went. 

''The  westerly  wind  with  its  bitterly  cold  bite  howled 
about  the  little  thatclied-roof  cottage  as  if  to  emphasize 
the  fact  that  life  is  a  struggle.    Was  it  all  worth  while? 


152  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

We  pulled  ourselves  together  and  inwardly  got  our  words 
of  comfort  all  set  out  in  a  row  with  a  sense  of  shame  at 
our  weakness.  We  were  ushered  into  the  presence  of  the 
dying  man.  And  then — our  lips  were  dumb.  Our 
words  of  comfort,  like  some  paltry  wares  which  a  mer- 
chant is  ashamed  to  show,  we  kept  stowed  away.  In  the 
presence  of  a  dying  man?  No,  we  were  in  the  presence 
of  the  victorious  spirit  of  the  Master. 

''One  day  that  miracle,  wrought  when  God  in  Christ 
walked  in  tender  pity  among  men,  and  re- wrought  again 
and  again  all  through  the  centuries,  had  come  to  pass  in 
him.  The  god  of  selfishness  had  been  cast  out,  and 
Christ,  gentle,  pure,  good,  reigned  supreme.  And  when 
laid  upon  his  bed  of  suffering,  the  humble  neighbours 
came  and  stood  and  wondered.  '  'Tis  like  stories  the 
priests  tell  us  of  the  Buddhist  saints  who  lived  long  ago, 
but  men  do  not  live  and  die  like  this.'  And  then  he 
died — nay,  nay,  friend,  not  so.  The  gentle,  humble 
spirit,  dispensing  comfort  lavishly  upon  us  all,  passed 
from  under  the  crude  shelter  of  the  thatched  roof  into 
the  beautiful  portals  of  the  true  home  of  such  souls. 
Then  came  the  little  boatswain  from  the  ship  to  pre- 
pare for  laying  away  the  poor,  worn  body.  We  sat  with 
bowed  head  in  wonder.  It  seemed  but  yesterday  when 
this  sailor,  almost  naked,  scrambled  over  the  stern. 
Ignorant,  mean,  quarrelsome,  he  gambled,  drank  and 
did  his  worst,  and  then  God's  spirit  gripped  him  as  it 
did  the  other,  the  educated  Pharisee. 

*'As  he  moved  gently  about,  with  a  tact,  wisdom  and 
fine  feeling  we  envied,  taking  quiet  charge  of  all  prepara- 
tions and  then  turning  to  care  with  a  woman's  tender- 
ness for  the  bereaved  mother  and  sister,  we  bowed  our 
head  in  shame.  Is  it  worth  while  ?  The  man  who  comes 
and  mocks,  the  one  who  comes  for  rice,  the  Pharisee — is 
it  worth  while  to  spend  a  life  on  these?  My  God,  my 
God,  how  could  I  doubt  Thee  ?  Take  my  life  and  use  it 
to  the  last  shred  for  whomsoever  Thou  wilt. 


SHEPHEEDS  OF  THE  ISLES  153 

"And  then  we  carried  him,  the  evangelist,  out;  no, 
not  him,  for  he  was  not  there;  only  the  poor,  weary- 
body.  There  was  no  sorrow — how  could  there  be? — as 
we  laid  the  body  in  the  grave  dug  in  the  stern  rock-soil 
of  an  island  hill.  We  looked  out  on  the  blue  waters 
where  the  little  ship  of  the  good  message  lay.  We 
looked  beyond  and  saw  island  upon  island,  each  in  its 
emerald  setting.  We  looked  beyond,  and  still  beyond, 
to  the  snow-glistening  hills  of  the  m_ainland,  and  on 
again  beyond  the  snow  caps,  and  the  eyes  of  faith  pre- 
vailed over  our  dim  mortal  eyes.  We  saw  the  dear 
Home  Land,  and  it  was  to  us  more  clear  than  ever  before. 
Quietly  the  officiating  evangelist 's  voice  rose  on  the  sun- 
lit air.  To  the  villagers  the  words  came  as  some  strange 
mystery : '  He  that  believeth  in  Me,  though  he  were  dead, 
yet  shall  he  live.'  To  us  they  brought  a  message  sweet 
amid  the  strife  of  earth.  Yes,  it  is  worth  while.  May 
we  believe  it!" 

In  a  later  letter  the  Captain  gives  us  another 
fragment  of  this  story. 

''Long  had  we  hoped  and  prayed  for  an  additional 
evangelist  to  take  the  waiting  w^estern  field.  We 
thought  we  had  at  last  found  him.  He  was  a  young 
man  of  ability,  deep  faith  and  fine  character.  But  the 
scourge  of  the  land,  consumption,  laid  its  hand  with 
relentless  hold  upon  him  and  he  died,  nay  rather  we 
ought  to  say,  passed  in  triumph  to  a  better  land. 

* '  The  western  field  is  still  waiting ;  yet  though  it  waits 
and  the  tens  of  thousands  there  have  no  one  to  warn,  to 
teach,  to  comfort,  still  for  our  brother  Nagai  Minoru  we 
rejoice,  in  his  having  been  privileged  to  lay  aside  the 
weariness  of  earth  not  only,  but  in  so  doing  to  bear 
emphatic  witness  to  the  power  of  God  to  uphold  in  suf- 
fering and  death.  '  No  power  of  man  can  make  one  meet 
suffering  and  death  like  this,'  said  the  sorrowing  yet 


154  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

wondering  mother  and  sister  who  watched  beside  him  in 
the  little  Island  cottage.  To-day  comes  word  from  a  far 
off  mainland  city,  whither  they  had  gone,  that  they  both 
have  come  to  share  the  faith  of  the  loved  one  gone  before, 
and  are  to  be  baptized." 


But  it  is  time  now  to  introduce  to  the  reader  the 
Five  Shepherds  of  the  Isles  who  became  Captain 
BickeFs  permanent  associates.  And  first  let  us  in- 
troduce Toda  Kushiro,  or  Mr.  K.  Toda,  as  we  would 
write  it.  Mr.  Toda  has  been  in  the  Island  work  al- 
most from  the  beginning.  He  has  not  the  charming 
eloquence  of  Mr.  Imai,  nor  the  flaming  enthusiasm 
of  Mr.  Ito,  of  whom  mention  will  presently  be  made. 
He  is  what  one  may  call  a  good,  plain,  practical 
preacher,  and  a  patient  and  faithful  worker.  In 
character  he  is  solid,  conservative  and  reliable,  and 
in  manner  quiet,  kindly  and  serious,  not  self-assert- 
ive but  self-respecting,  a  man  easy  to  trust  and  to 
love.  As  evangelist  on  the  ship,  or  as  shepherd  of 
now  one  and  now  another  of  the  Island  groups,  he 
has  won  for  himself  a  good  report.  Mr.  Todays 
story  is  so  well  told  in  the  "  Log  of  the  Fukuin 
Maru/'  that  no  apology  is  needed  for  transferring 
it  to  these  pages. 


Toda,  the  Samurai 

'*Toda  Kiishiro  wore  two  swords.  That  meant  rank 
in  those  daj^s.  It  meant  that  he  was  of  Samurai  family, 
one  of  the  gentry.  His  father  was  Gokaru,  chief  min- 
ister of  the  feudal  lord  of  the  Province  of  Echigo.  The 
father  died  just  before  the  Rebellion  of  '67-71.  The 
son  fought  a  hard,  losing  fight.     He  was  one  of  those 


SHEPHEBDS  OF  THE  ISLES  l^S 

who  would  not  be  reconciled,  even  after  defeat.  Asso- 
ciated with  a  band  of  others,  some  of  them  to-day  promi- 
nent men,  he  plotted  the  overthrow  of  the  Imperial 
power  They  planned  the  burning  and  destruction  of 
temples  containing  Imperial  graves.  He  and  two  others 
were  caught  in  the  act  and  imprisoned  for  three  years. 
At  the  end  of  that  time  the  other  two  were  beheaded, 
but  through  some  influence  stUl  unknown  to  him  he  was 

released. 

''The "band  then  plotted  the  destruction  of  the  Im- 
perial ministers.    He  went  at  night  to  visit  some  of  his 
colleagues,  who  had,  contrary  to  the  orders  of  the  band 
too  hastily  attacked  one  of  the  ministers  and  aumped 
him  into  the  Tokyo  castle  moat  as  dead,  though  he  after- 
ward  recovered.    He    was    followed    and    seized    and 
again  imprisoned.     He  had  on  his  person  the  contract 
of  the  confederates  to  which  every  one  had  affixed  a 
keppan  or  blood  seal.     This  he  managed  to  get  into  his 
mouth  and  chew  up.     He  was  tortured  to  make  him  tell 
who  his  associates  were,  but  rather  than  do  so  sought  to 
take  his  own  life.     His  method  was  original.     He  stood 
before  the  judge,  behind  a  heavy  lacquered  beam  or 
bar,  with  hands  bound  to  his  hips,  as  a  sign  that  he  was 
a  political  prisoner,  a  soldier  standing  guard  beside  him. 
Suddenly  raising  his  foot  he  kicked  the  attendant  guard 
in  the  pit  of  the  stomach,  and  thus  gaining  time  dashed 
his  head  against  the  heavy  lacquered  bar  with  all  the 
force  of  a  powerful  body,  in  the  hope  of  ending  life  and 
saving  his  friends.  . 

*'He  was  unconscious  for  two  days  but  was  revived. 
Evidence  failing  he  was  tortured  again,  but  without 
avail,  and  after  some  months  was  set  free.  Still  un- 
convinced of  the  futility  of  his  cause  he  plotted  farther, 
finally  being  hunted  and  hounded  in  the  hills  as  an 
outlaw.  According  to  all  accounts,  however,  he  was 
through  all  this  a  man  of  high  ideals  and  clean  personal 
Ufe,  his  one  failing  being  an  inherited  liking  for  the 


156  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

brew  of  his  fathers,  sake,  plus  a  good  appetite.  The 
former  has  been  long  since  set  aside,  the  latter  still  holds 
sway  in  a  healthy  body. 

*'Now  even  outlaws  need  food,  and  one  with  a  physique 
like  Mr.  Toda's  needs  a  double  portion.  The  hills  af- 
forded but  meagre  pickings.  The  Capital  looked  prom- 
ising but  dangerous,  unless,  perchance,  he  behaved  him- 
self politically.  Hunger  drove  him  in  one  night,  and 
Providence  did  the  rest,  by  letting  him  turn  a  corner  in 
the  dark  and  run  bodily  into  and  half  over  an  old 
chum  of  slighter  build.  The  old  chum  looked  hale  and 
hearty.  Mr.  Toda  looked  worried,  and  as  lean  as  a 
naturally  heavy  man  can  look. 

''The  chum  took  Mr.  Toda  home  and  asked  him  how 
he  fared.  He  confessed  to  being  at  the  old  patriotic 
game,  and,  rather  resenting  the  cheerful  smile  of  his 
chum,  asked  him  what  Jie  was  doing.  The  answer  put 
new  life  into  Mr.  Toda,  in  that  he  took  to  his  legs  forth- 
with as  though  the  Evil  One  were  after  him.  He  would 
have  escaped  but  for  his  friend's  restraining  hand.  The 
cause  of  his  intended  flight  was  that  his  chum  had 
cheerfully  confessed  to  having  become  a  Christian.  To 
have  forsaken  the  Cause  was  bad  enough,  but  to  have 
become  a  Christian  was  to  add  treachery  to  treachery ! 

*'To  make  a  long  story  short,  the  Christian's  love 
prevailed,  the  hard  heart  was  softened.  The  love  of 
Christ  entered  the  heart,  giving  a  new  view-point,  new 
ideals,  new  hope,  new  life.  Mr.  Toda  became  a  Chris- 
tian and  later  on  a  Christian  worker.  He  has  two 
wounds.  One  is  a  great  scar  into  which  you  can  lay 
three  fingers,  on  the  calf  of  his  leg.  He  got  this  in  the 
Rebellion,  when  the  other  fellows  got  the  whip  hand,  and 
having  ambushed  him  whittled  a  piece  out  of  him 
before  he  fought  his  way  through.  He  is  proud  of  it, 
but  he  is  more  so  of  a  finger  half  bitten  off  by  a  man  who 
fiercely  attacked  him  while  as  a  soldier  of  the  King  of 
kings  he  was  proclaiming  the  love  of  the  crucified  and 


SHEPHEEDS  OF  THE  ISLES  157 

hated  *Yaso/  The  man  was  imprisoned,  but  Mr.  Toda 
visited  him  and  led  him  to  Christ.  The  same  spirit  that 
of  old  did  not  let  him  know  when  he  was  beaten  has 
caused  him  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  to  hold  on 
in  places  where  others  would  have  given  up  the  fight 
long  since/' 

Mr.  Toda  is  serving  the  Master,  in  his  quiet,  pa- 
tient, unostentatious  way,  at  Agenosho,  in  Oshima, 
in  the  Southwestern  Division,  the  group  of  islands 
at  the  far  end  of  the  Inland  Sea. 

Another  of  the  Five,  and  perhaps  the  most  re- 
markable of  them  all,  is  Ito  Menosuke,  who  as 
pastor  of  the  Fukuin  Marii  Church,  is  in  a  way  the 
Chief  of  the  Shepherds,  primus  inter  pares,  Mr. 
Ito,  after  a  youth  of  wild  dissipation,  heard  the 
voice  of  Christ  calling  him  to  repentance.  He  is 
one  of  the  Twice-Born  Men  who  are  the  boast  of 
the  Gospel,  in  every  land  and  in  every  age.  The 
Christian  zeal  he  displayed  after  his  conversion, 
and  his  marked  ability  in  public  address,  brought 
him  to  the  notice  of  those  interested  in  the  Inland 
Sea  Mission,  and  he  was  sent  down  to  the  ship  on 
triaL  After  proving  himself  a  true  disciple  and 
an  effi-cient  evangelist  he  returned  to  Yokohama 
and  took  a  course  of  study  in  the  Theological  Semi- 
nary. During  part  of  his  course,  and  after  his 
graduation,  he  was  in  charge  of  a  very  successful 
mission  hall  in  the  city.  Having  been  saved  out 
of  the  depths  himself,  he  was  fitted  to  sympathize 
with,  and  to  win  infi.uence  over,  those  whom  sin  had 
submerged.  He  was  an  eloquent  and  forceful 
speaker,  with  true  evangelistic  fervour.  He  had  a 
most  valuable  fellow-worker  in  his  earnest  and 


158  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

capable  Cliristian  wife,  wliom  he  had  married  after 
his  conversion.  Such  a  man,  such  a  couple,  was 
just  what  Captain  Bickel  needed  to  put  in  charge 
of  one  of  the  Island  districts.  Let  us  ask  the  Cap- 
tain, who  knows  him  best,  to  tell  us  his  story. 

Ito,  the  Zealot 

''Tourists  visiting  the  Hongwanji  Temple  at  Kyoto 
are  shown  great  ropes  made  of  human  hair.  These  rep- 
resent the  offerings  of  thousands  of  Buddhist  women. 
Chief  among  the  contributing  women  were  those  of 
Goshiu.  Ito  Menosuke  was  born  there.  He  was  a 
strongly  religious  man,  a  religious  zealot.  A  strong 
Buddhist  was  he,  of  the  militant  type.  He  was  promi- 
nent as  a  lay-leader  in  Buddhist  circles  and  head  of  a 
Buddhist  young  men's  league.  True  he  drank  like  the 
proverbial  fish,  and  led  such  a  life  that  the  parents  of 
his  wife,  into  whose  family  he  had  been  adopted,  for- 
bade him  the  house  and  divorced  him.  All  this  was 
openly  done  and  known.  Still,  if  any  one  thinks  this 
need  interfere  with  his  being  a  religious  man  and  even 
a  leader,  that  person  knows  little  of  the  ways  and 
thoughts,  social  and  religious,  of  the  East. 

''His  zeal  was  great.  The  religion  of  his  fathers  and 
their  fathers  was  in  danger.  A  great  enemy  had  ap- 
peared. The  religion  of  the  uncouth  foreigner  threat- 
ened to  undermine  the  faith  of  the  faithful.  Some- 
thing must  be  done.  A  Laymen's  Movement  was 
planned.  The  recognition  of  Buddhism  as  the  state 
religion  of  Japan  was  the  one  hope.  Consultations  were 
many  and  great.  Amid  much  feasting  and  drinking 
great  plans  were  made.  A  delegation  must  go  to  Tokyo 
and  interview  the  political  leaders.  For  this  purpose 
much  'Honourable  Thanks  Money'  would  be  needed. 
This  was  collected  from  the  faithful.  Ito  San,  defender 
of  the  faith  of  his  fathers,  was  one  of  the  delegates. 


SHEPHEEDS  OF  THE  ISLES  169 

''Tokyo  was  reached  and  the  'Honourable  Thanks 
Money'  applied  to  the  consciences  of  many  men,  as 
thanks  for  services  hoped  for.  Now  the  art  of  a  half 
promise;  procrastination  with  ample  excuses  and  pro- 
fuse apologies;  postponements  and  final  evasion,  is  one 
highly  developed  in  the  Orient  far  and  near.  Thus  the 
delegation,  after  delivering  itself  of  the  'Honourable 
Thanks  Money, '  made  up  its  mind  to  await  developments 
and  incidentally  to  have  a  good  time. 

"This  was  the  undoing  of  our  friend  Ito  San,  in  so 
far  as  the  faith  of  his  fathers  went.  While  he  waited 
a  lady  missionary  held  a  meeting  in  the  very  lodging 
house  in  which  he  lived.  He  went  to  hear  and  oppose, 
only  to  be  stricken  in  conscience  and  to  see  himself  as 
a  blind  leader  of  the  blind.  He  was  converted,  thor- 
oughly converted.  His  conscience  being  quickened,  he 
was  at  once  shut  off  from  bribes  and  emoluments  by  his 
own  act.  But  he  must  live.  He  therefore  joined  the 
Tokyo  police  force.  His  zeal  in  service,  and  his  witness 
to  the  new  light  in  his  soul,  soon  gave  him  the  name  of 
*Yaso  no  omari  san/  the  'Jesus  Bobby.' 

"His  activity  as  a  Christian  led  to  the  thought  that 
he  might  be  made  a  useful  worker.  He  was  sent  first 
to  the  Fukuin  Mam,  and  then  to  the  Seminary  in  Yoko- 
hama. Now  some  folk  sum  up  a  missionary's  duties  in 
about  the  following  words:  'Beat  a  drum,  shout  halle- 
lujah, get  some  people  converted,  and  then  go  on  to  the 
next  batch!'  Never  a  greater  mistake  was  made. 
Setting  aside  the  question  of  the  propriety  of  drum 
beating  and  hallelujahing,  it  is  just  after  conversion  that 
the  work  begins,  especially  in  regard  to  those  who  are 
to  be  leaders.  Some  are  all  fight  and  lack  sense.  That 
means  not  work.  Christian  work,  but  a  row.  Some  are 
all  fears  and  misgivings  and  call  it  modesty.  Some 
cannot  steer  a  straight  course,  but  run  after  fads  and 
'isms,'  and  call  it  special  piety  or  consecration.  Some 
play  the  fiddle  of  independence  or  nationalism  and  lose 


160  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

all  sense  of  proportion  and  balance.  To  guide,  to  en- 
courage, to  restrain  with  gentleness,  at  times  with 
severity  if  need  be,  but  always  with  love;  being  ready 
to  risk  resentment  and  misunderstood  motives,  until 
these  children  become  established  in  the  faith,  that  they 
again  may  safely  lead  others,  this  is  one  most  important 
part  of  a  true  missionary's  work,  and  is  often  a  long 
and  weary  process.  This  work  was  needed  with  our 
friend  Ito  San,  and  badly  needed,  but  the  reward  of 
those  who  bore  with  him  and  led  him  is  great,  and  for 
their  patience  we  give  thanks  to  God  to-day. 

''After  faithful,  valuable  service  in  Yokohama  as 
evangelist  in  charge  of  the  Mission  Hall,  in  which  many 
through  his  zeal  were  led  to  Christ,  he  came  to  the 
Islands  of  the  Inland  Sea.  Here  as  pastor  of  the 
Fukuin  Maru  Baptist  Church,  he  is  loved  and  esteemed 
by  his  co-workers,  by  the  believers,  and  by  the  Island 
people  at  large,  for  he  has  now  not  only  zeal  coupled 
with  judgment,  but  he  has  also  a  broad,  deep  sympathy 
for  those  who  err,  be  their  errors  those  of  conduct  or  of 
faith.  He  himself  had  erred  grievously,  erred  both  in 
conduct  and  faith,  and  having  been  led  by  the  love  of 
Christ  and  the  example  of  God's  children  to  better  and 
higher  things,  his  words  and  deeds  are  those  of  one  who 
has  passed  through  the  refining  fires  of  experience. 
They  hit  home." 

If  the  material  were  at  hand,  and  space  per- 
mitted, doubtless  a  life  story  of  equal  interest  with 
those  of  Toda  the  Samurai,  and  Ito  the  Zealot, 
could  be  told  of  each  of  the  other  district  evangel- 
ists. Years  of  darkness,  perplexity  and  despair,  or 
of  pride  and  self-righteousness,  or  of  riotous  living 
and  deep  degradation;  a  strange  leading  of  Provi- 
dence into  contact  with  Christian  doctrine,  or 
rather  with  a  Christian  life,  with  Christ  incarnate 


SHEPHEEDS  OP  THE  ISLES  161 

in  one  of  His  disciples;  a  wonderful  experience  of 
conversion,  with  old  things  passed  away  and  all 
things  become  new;  years  of  loving  service  of  the 
divine  Master,  amid  persecution,  opx^osition  and 
hardship, — each  such  life  would  provide  material 
for  a  story  full  of  meaning  and  interest.  Each  is  a 
testimony  to  the  power  of  the  Gospel  to  renew  and 
transform  the  lives  of  men,  making  those  even  who 
were  most  headlong,  or  headstrong,  in  the  pursuit 
of  evil,  imitators  of  the  holy  and  lowly  Saviour, 
and  fellow-workers  with  Him  in  the  building  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

We  can  give  the  story  of  but  one  more  of  the 
Shepherds  of  the  Isles,  that  of  Evangelist  Shibata, 
whose  earnest,  faithful  ministry  is  bringing  many 
of  the  Islanders  to  a  saving  acquaintance  with  the 
Lord  Jesus. 

Shibata,  the  Prodigal 

'^  Shibata  Otoye  by  name,  he  was  manager  of  a  modest 
export  firm  belonging  to  his  uncle.  He  felt  he  was  on 
top.  All  he  had  to  do  was  to  manage,  and  have  a  good 
time.  He  did;  he  drank,  gambled  and  played  up  gen- 
erally. He  did  it  all  with  a  will,  he  made  debts  to  the 
tune  of  Ten  10,000  with  his  uncle's  money,  and  then 
stepped  down  and  out.  He  went  from  bad  to  worse, 
becoming  a  SosJii,  a  type  of  semi-political  rough  and 
blackmailer.  Down  the  steep  ladder  to  perdition  he 
went,  helter-skelter,  until  finally  one  cold  winter  night, 
clothed  in  nothing  but  a  thin  summer  garment,  the  last 
thing  left  to  him,  he  laid  his  head  upon  the  rails  some 
miles  outside  of  Tokyo  and  waited  for  the  coming  of  the 
train  that  should  put  an  end  to  his  misery. 

**The  train  being  late  his  mind  reviewed  his  life.  It 
was  wasted,  useless.    He  had  never  been  a  Buddhist, 


162  CAPTAIN  BIOKEL 

Of  Samurai  rank,  he  had  been  taught  chiefly  on  the  lines 
of  Confucianism.  Like  a  dimly  flickering  lamp  a  special 
thought  had  always  been  present  with  him  regarding  the 
meaning  of  Ten  and  Ten-tei  in  the  teaching  of  the  great 
sage  of  Cathay.  With  his  head  pillowed  upon  the  rails, 
as  he  looked  up  to  the  stars,  he  felt  that  if  this  Ten-tei 
meant,  as  some  said,  a  being  of  power  above,  an  unseen 
ruler  of  the  universe,  then  what  good  could  it  do,  by  way 
of  restitution  for  an  ill-spent  life,  to  throw  that  life  away 
as  it  was  now  ?  But  how  could  he  change  ?  What  hope 
was  there?  Had  he  not  tried  and  failed?  Then  he  re- 
membered that  some  one  had  said  that  the  'Yaso'  peo- 
ple, the  Christians,  dealt  with  such  as  he.  He  was  seized 
with  a  sudden  desperate  hope,  jumped  up  and  ran.  He 
was  weak  for  lack  of  food,  but  ran  till  he  reached  the 
confines  of  the  great  city,  and  then  day  dawned  and  he, 
being  ashamed,  hid  himself  away  till  night.  When  night 
came,  slinking  along  under  the  eaves  of  the  houses,  he 
sought  a  Christian  church.  He  saw  a  well-lit  building. 
Forgetful  of  all  but  his  o^vn  misery  he  plunged  in,  and 
going  to  the  very  front  listened  in  astonishment.  The 
sermon  ended,  he  was  so  overcome  that  he  forgot  those 
around  him  and  rushing  to  the  platform  asked  the 
preacher  who  had  told  him  of  his  life  and  doings.  The 
preacher  said  he  did  not  know  him,  and  asked  what  his 
name  might  be.  'But  you  do  know  me,  for  you  have 
told  my  whole  life  story.    My  name  is  Shibata. ' 

**  'What,'  said  the  preacher,  'are  you  he?  Your 
mother  is  a  member  here,  and  has  been  praying  for  you 
and  so  have  we  all,  that  God  might  find  you  out.' 

**  'There  must  be  some  mistake,  my  mother  is  not  a 
Christian;  though,  of  course,  I  have  not  seen  or  heard 
of  her  for  four  years  or  more,  nor  she  of  me.  She  is  a 
strong  Buddhist.' 

"  'Yes,  yes,  your  mother  was  that,  it  is  true.  She 
fasted  and  chastised  herself,  often  subjecting  herself  to 
the  most  painful  form  of  the  Honourable  Hundred 


SHEPHERDS  OP  THE  ISLES  163 

Penances  that  you  might  be  saved ;  but  finding  no  help 
or  peace  she  was  led  here  by  a  friend  two  years  ago. 
Since  then  she  has  been  pleading  with  God  for  your 
salvation,  not  knowing  whether  you  lived  or  not/ 

"Thus  Shibata  first  turned  to  the  light.  Tempta- 
tions were  hard  and  many.  How  should  he  live?  No 
one  would  trust  him,  for  had  he  not  been  a  SosJii  of  the 
worst  type?  He  found  work  as  a  labourer  in  a  print- 
ing office,  and  sought  permission  of  the  proprietor  to 
learn  typesetting  after  closing  time.  He  did,  and  be- 
came a  compositor.  He  was  so  overwhelmed  with  God's 
mercy  in  saving  him  that  he  felt  he  must  work  for 
others.  This  he  did  so  effectually  that  his  brother,  a 
Christian,  urged  him  to  devote  all  his  time  to  preach- 
ing, while  he,  the  brother,  worked  and  supported  them 
both. 

''Thus  he  preached  here  and  there  in  many  places 
with  such  success  that  his  church  urged  him  to  take 
charge  of  a  chapel  as  a  regularly-recognized  evangelist. 
This  he  longed  to  do,  but  felt  he  could  not  with  the  stain 
on  his  character  of  a  Yen  10,000  debt,  the  result  of  evil 
living,  still  unpaid.  While  praying  and  trying  to  de- 
cide how  to  give  a  final  reply  to  the  church,  he  received 
a  letter  from  his  uncle  who  was  then  not  yet  a  Chris- 
tian. The  uncle  said  he  had  heard  of  the  great  change 
that  had  taken  place  in  him,  and  as  a  token  of  the  joy 
at  this  change,  he  enclosed  a  clean  receipt  for  the  Yen 
10,000  debt!  With  tears  of  gratitude  Shibata  wrote 
his  letter  of  acceptance  to  the  church. 

*'He  has  been  an  earnest,  faithful,  effective  worker 
for  years  now,  and  has  led  many  to  Christ.  We  value 
him  much  in  the  Fukuin  Maru  work.  What  higher 
praise  of  him  can  there  be  than  to  say  that  as  it  was  with 
the  Master  so  it  is  with  him:  the  common  people  hear 
him  gladly.  And  if,  as  he  speaks  of  God 's  love,  at  times 
the  tears  well  up  unbidden,  what  wonder,  for  some  of 
us  that  have  had  much  forgiven,  love  much,  and  what 


164  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

more  noble  tears  can  a  man  shed  than  tears  of  love  and 
gratitude?'' 

In  1915  Mr.  Shibata  was  ordained  as  assistant 
pastor  of  the  Fukuin  Maru  Church.  He  is  sta- 
tioned on  the  Island  of  Hirado,  as  the  shepherd  of 
the  four  deep  sea  island  groups,  with  their  200,000 
inhabitants,  and  holds  regular  meetings  at  fifteen 
places,  from  Iki  to  the  Gotos.  "  We  thank  God 
for  such  a  worker  in  such  a  place.  He  is  a  man 
of  peculiar  power.  Those  who  have  read  the  sketch 
of  his  life  will  understand  the  source  of  this  power." 

It  is  men  like  these,  whom  Captain  Bickel 
gathered  about  him,  and  whom  he  made  his  evan- 
gelistic mates,  his  lieutenants,  his  District  Shep- 
herds, his  fellow-missionaries,  his  brothers  in  the 
labour  and  triumph  of  the  Gospel.  Others  had  led 
them  to  Christ.  In  distant  places  God  had  laid 
hold  on  them  and  had  made  them  His  messengers. 
Captain  Bickel  had  recognized  their  potential 
value.  He  was  a  keen  judge  of  character,  quick  to 
discern  both  the  good  and  evil,  the  weakness  and 
the  strength,  of  a  man.  He  was  a  wise  and  sympa- 
thetic leader  and  teacher,  eager  to  approve  and 
develop  the  elements  of  goodness  and  strength  in 
his  chosen  helpers.  He  won  their  confidence,  their 
admiration  and  their  affection,  and  bound  them  to 
himself  and  to  the  Mission  to  the  Islanders  by  his 
own  example  of  consecration,  and  by  his  spirit  of 
humility,  love,  and  brotherliness.  He  never  said 
to  them  "Go,"  but  always,  "Come."  He  called 
them  to  no  toil,  nor  hardship,  nor  self-sacrifice,  in 
which  he  did  not  lead  the  way.  If  he  demanded 
much  of  them,  he  &emanded  far  more  of  himself. 


c3 

o 


o 


>-M 

o 

p 

bi,' 


C/2 


SHEPHEEDS  OF  THE  ISLES  166 

He  summoned  them  to  heroism,  whicli  is  the  only 
summons  which  will  win  true  men,  and  in  his  own 
life  showed  what  Christian  heroism  is.  Some- 
times they  disappointed  and  grieved  him,  and  mis- 
understood him,  and  thought  he  was  a  hard  master, 
demanding  labour  and  sacrifice  beyond  reason. 
He  might  have  said  to  them  as  did  Christ  to  His 
disciples,  "  How  long  shall  I  be  with  you?  How 
long  must  I  suffer  you?  ''  But  as  with  Christ,  his 
nobleness,  his  love  and  sympathy  at  length  over- 
came. 

"  The  evangelists  gradually  noticed,"  writes  Mr. 
Briggs,  in  his  memorial  article  in  the  Japan  Evan- 
gelist, "that  the  Captain  worked  three  hours  to 
their  one;  that  he  always  carried  the  heavy  ster- 
eopticon  and  gas-tank  on  his  own  back,  and  gave 
them  a  little  bundle  of  tracts  or  the  lantern ;  that 
he  was  always  planning  for  their  comfort  and  never 
for  his  own ;  and  it  came  to  be  realized  that  instead 
of  a  hard  taskmaster  he  was  a  splendid  leader,  and 
earnest  workers  became  proud  to  follow  him." 

One  of  the  most  vital  parts  of  our  Lord^s  min- 
istry was  the  Training  of  the  Twelve.  Captain 
Bickel  has  put  much  of  his  life  into  his  five  evan- 
gelists. In  them  he  still  lives  and  speaks  and 
toils.  Because  of  what  he  has  been  to  them,  and 
of  what  he  has  made  them,  the  Inland  Sea  Mission 
did  not  die  with  its  founder.  Even  if  the  Little 
White  Ship  should  no  more  come  sailing  down  the 
west,  the  light  from  the  five  centres  will  glow  and 
grow,  and  the  day  will  come  toward  which  the 
Captain  yearned,  when  in  all  the  Islands  of  the 
Inner  and  Outer  Seas  the  idols  shall  be  abolished, 
and  the  Island  Folk  shall  know  no  god  but  God. 


xni 

V 

WINNING  THE  ISLANDERS 

BESIDES  the  material  obstacles  which,  had  to 
be  overcome  before  our  Missionary-Mariner 
could  gain  even  jjhysical  access  to  the  vari- 
ous parts  of  his  widely  extended  parish, — ^thou- 
sands of  miles  of  difficult  channels  to  be  navigated, 
and  thousands  of  miles  of  rough  hill  paths  to  be 
trodden, — there  were  obstacles  of  a  much  more 
serious  nature,  moral  and  spiritual  hindrances, 
which  barred  him  and  his  message  from  the 
Islanders'  hearts.  In  fact,  on  the  spiritual  side 
of  his  mission  he  had  before  him  three  definite 
tasks,  the  accomplishment  of  all  of  which  was 
essential  to  final  success.  These  were,  the  Chris- 
tianizing of  the  Crew,  the  Training  of  the  Evan- 
gelists, and  the  Winning  of  the  Islanders.  An 
earlier  chapter  has  told  how  the  Seven  Sailors, 
through  hourly  contact  with  the  life  of  Christ  as 
incarnated  in  their  Captain,  were  changed  from  a 
rough,  dissolute,  godless  gang  of  thieves,  liars  and 
gamblers,  to  a  company  of  humble,  earnest  Chris- 
tian men,  confederate  with  the  Captain  in  his  spiri- 
tual campaign.  We  have  also  seen  the  several 
evangelists  whom  he  associated  with  himself  in  the 
work  become  increasingly  worthy,  under  the  in- 
spiration of  his  example,  and  through  his  wise  and 

166 


WINNING  THE  ISLANDEES  167 

sympathetic  leadersliip,  to  be  called  the  Apostles 
of  the  Inland  Sea,  the  Shepherds  of  the  Isles. 
These  two  tasks  accomplished,  the  fulfillment  of 
the  third  became  automatically  far  more  rapid  and 
easy.  Failing  in  these,  even  a  super-mariner  and 
super-missionary  could  have  only  a  very  limited 
success  in  the  other.  With  the  ship's  company 
Christian  from  skipper  to  cabin  boy,  and  five  good 
men  and  true  in  the  evangelistic  centres  working 
heart  to  heart  with  their  leader,  the  Winning  of 
the  Islanders  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  But 
while  a  Christian  crew  and  a  trained  corps  of 
preachers  were  yet  in  the  making,  siege  was  being 
laid  daily  to  the  Islanders'  hearts,  and  with  every 
passing  month  came  evidences  that  the  siege  was 
not  in  vain. 

In  our  chapter  upon  the  Island  Folk  mention 
was  made  of  the  strong  hold  which  Shintoism  and 
Buddhism,  in  grossly  superstitious  forms,  had  on 
the  people ;  of  their  conservatism,  insularity  mental 
as  well  as  geographical,  and  of  their  deeply  rooted, 
dyed-in-the-wool,  centuries-old  repugnance  to  the 
very  name  of  Christianity.  KiriMitan  was  sj^nony- 
mous  with  rebel,  traitor  and  outlaw.  Yaso  was  a 
term  of  contempt,  of  hatred  and  ill  omen,  a  name 
wherewith  to  check  the  naughty  pranks  of  children. 
Japanese  standards  of  politeness  and  hospitality 
might  usually  ensure  a  courteous  or  even  kindly 
treatment  of  the  "long  foreign  i)riest,"  merely  as 
a  foreigner ;  but  to  help  forward  his  work  would  be 
unfilial  to  the  Honourable  Ancestors  of  Many  Gen- 
erations, unpatriotic  toward  Great  Japan,  and  dis- 
loyal to  the  Imperial  House, — the  three  cardinal 
and  unpardonable  sins.     "Ask  for  the  old  paths, 


168  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

and  walk  in  them/'  and  "  Mother's  religion  is  good 
enough  for  me,"  are  good  sound  Island  maxihis,  in 
which  subsist  the  beginning,  middle  and  end  of 
true  wisdom. 

The  writer,  during  his  three  summer  visits,  of  a 
month  each,  to  the  Inland  Sea,  during  the  early- 
years  of  the  Mission,  met  many  of  the  Island  peo- 
ple, of  all  ranks  and  ages,  by  the  wayside,  on  the 
beach,  in  the  fields  and  in  their  homes,  as  well  as 
on  the  vessel  when  they  came  as  visitors,  and  at 
the  public  gatherings,  both  on  islands  where  the 
Fukuin  Maru  work  had  already  been  introduced, 
and  at  places  then  visited  for  the  first  time,  and  he 
deems  it  only  fair  to  the  Islanders  to  say  that  he 
remembers  no  occasion  when  he  v/as  treated  with 
apparent  discourtesy  or  unkindness.  The  polite- 
ness, and  at  least  outward  kindliness,  which  he  has 
almost  invariably  met  among  the  Japanese  of  the 
mainland,  during  a  residence  of  thirty  years, 
characterized  also  these  simple-minded  villagers  of 
the  Seto-Nai-Kai.  But  this  does  not  mean  that 
either  the  Mainlanders  or  the  Islanders  are  clam- 
ouring for  the  foreign  religion  and  just  longing  for 
a  chance  to  get  converted.  There  is  a  triple  wall 
of  ignorance,  superstition  and  prejudice  that 
must  be  broken  through  before  the  new  teaching 
can  have  any  approach  to  their  hearts.  On  the 
Islands  this  wall  seemed  thicker,  solider  and  more 
impregnable  than  elsewhere  in  Japan. 

The  very  first  step,  then,  toward  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  Islands,  must  be  to  overcome  these 
prejudices  and  gain  a  thoughtful  hearing  for  the 
Christian  message.  ¥»''ell  begun  is  half  done.  To 
make  the  Little  White  Ship  a  welcome  visitor,  and 


WINNING  THE  ISLANDEES  169 

the  Captain  a  trusted  friend,  was  to  ensure  in  due 
time  the  winning  of  the  Islanders  to  Christ  Hnn- 

self.  .  .     1       -1 

As  every  missionary  knows,  to  win  a  single  vil- 
lage is  no  light  achievement.     Here  were  hundreds 
of  inhabited  islands,  and  on  many  of  the  islands 
several  villages  each,  each  village  a  world  in  itself, 
a  community  apart,  living  a  separate  life,  with  the 
blue  sea  for  its  front  door,  and  a  rough  hill  slope 
for  its  back  door,  and  no  neighbours.    Siege  must 
be  laid  to  each  of  these  villages,  separately.     By 
and  by,  when  the  Mission  Vessel  should  have  be- 
come a  familiar  sight,  and  good  reports  of  her 
should  have  begun  to  spread  from  island  to  island, 
the  still  outholding  communities  would  grow  more 
ready  to  give  the  foreign  teacher  a  hearing;  but  at 
first  it  must  be  village  by  village,  island  by  island, 
that  an  approach  and  a  welcome  must  be  won. 

The  visible,  secular  aids  toward  winning  such  a 
welcome  were  chiefly  those  comprised  in  the  vessel 
herself.  "  No  other  kind  of  a  messenger,"  writes 
Missionary  Briggs,  "  would  so  hold  the  eyes  of  the 
people,  or  create  so  great  a  desire  for  closer 
acquaintance,  as  this  ship,  so  different  from  and 
so  much  more  beautiful  than  the  craft  they  were 
accustomed  to  see.  The  sight  awakened  interest, 
the  learning  that  it  was  a  Jesus  ship  aroused  dis- 
trust; but  all  the  time  curiosity  as  to  what  the 
ship  could  do  and  the  desire  for  a  closer  inspection 
were  busy  and  brought  crowds  to  see  the  vessel, 
while  others  waited  and  watched." 

The  Islanders  could  understand  a  ship;  they 
hardly  knew,  except  by  hearsay,  of  any  other 
vehicle.     There  is  only  one  island  that  can  boast 


170  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

even  of  a  rickshaw,  mucli  less  of  a  carriage.  If 
the  Caj)tain  could  have  made  his  rounds  in  a 
Chapel  Car,  a  Missionary  Automobile,  or  an 
Evangelistic  Aerox3lane,  it  would  have  created 
more  of  a  sensation,  but  less  of  an  abiding  interest. 
These  shore  dwellers,  whose  world  was  composed, 
like  all  Gaul,  of  three  parts — islands,  sea  and 
ships — could  appreciate  the  little  Mission  Vessel, 
her  seaworthy  and  good  sailing  qualities,  the  fine 
lines  of  her  hull,  the  sweep  of  her  spars,  her  spread 
of  canvas  with  the  wind  abeam,  the  ship-shapeness 
of  all  her  equipment,  and  the  absolute  order  and 
purity  that  reigned  throughout  her.  That  so 
goodly  a  ship,  the  cost  of  which  might  furnish 
homes  for  a  whole  village,  should  be  built  and 
equipped  by  foreigners  from  beyond  the  western 
ocean,  not  to  trade  withal  nor  for  a  pleasure  yacht, 
but  for  the  single  purpose  of  bringing  to  every 
island  a  knowledge  of  the  foreigners'  religion,  and 
of  persuading  the  Islanders  to  worship  the  for- 
eigners' God,  would  be  matter  for  much  thought, 
when  once  believed,  as  presently  came  to  pass. 
She  was  a  good  sound  craft,  an^n;\^ay,  and  perchance 
the  religion  whose  messenger  she  was  might  after 
all  not  be  so  evil  and  corrupt  as  it  had  been  painted. 
But  more  effectual  than  the  favourable  impres- 
sion made  by  the  vessel  was  that  gradually,  and 
for  the  most  part  unconsciously,  created  by  her 
Captain.  From  the  first  his  manly  strength  and 
courage  would  arrest  their  attention.  Head  and 
shoulders  above  the  Island  men,  broad  of  back  and 
strong  of  arm,  swift  in  action,  virile  and  capable 
in  mind  and  body  was  he,  able  to  sail  his  ship 
through  their  most  treacherous  channels,  to  out- 


WINNING  THE  ISLANDEES  171 

weatlier  a  gale  in  tlie  Bingo  Nada,  and  to  handle 
an  untamed  Japanese  crew,  who  feared  not  God 
neither  regarded  man.  He  could  tramp  the  rough 
hill  paths,  leagues  on  end,  in  summer's  heat  and 
winter's  storm. 

"  To  the  Islanders,"  continues  Mr.  Briggs,     the 
Captain  was  a  fierce  looking  man  of  rapid,  almost 
wild  movements.     But  the  intensity  did  not  seem 
wild  when  he  was  going  to  the  rescue  of  sailors 
or  fishermen  dashed  by  wind  and  tide  on  a  lee 
shore.     When  the  people  of  a  village  stood  shriek- 
ing at  the  sight  of  a  nearly  blind  old  woman,  with  a 
baby  on  her  back,  fallen  from  the  twenty  foot 
retaining  wall  into  the  sea,  the  Captain's  swift 
plunge  to  the  rescue  did  not  appear  wild.    When 
a  large  building  in  Shimomura  was  ablaze,  and 
the  whole  ship's  crew  with  disciplined  rapidity 
controlled  the  mob  and  extinguished  the  fire,  dis- 
trust was  displaced  in  many  hearts  by  admiration 
and  gratitude." 

He  was  a  man's  man,  the  practical,  hard-headed 
Islanders  discovered.  ''The  men  found  that  he 
could  talk  of  the  things  that  interested  them. 
With  his  wider  nautical  knowledge  and  keen  eye- 
sight he  could  give  them  points  even  in  regard  to 
the  ships  that  sailed  their  waters.  His  opinion  of 
the  weather  was  worth  asking ;  the  intricate  tides 
were  known  to  him."  Had  he  been  merely  a  mis- 
sionary they  might  have  been  inclined  to  regard 
him  with  mild  contempt,  as  they  regard  the  lazy 
and  useless  priests  of  the  Island  temples;  but  a 
Sea-Captain  was  a  different  matter,  especially  such 
a  wide-awake  sailor  and  seasoned  salt  as  he. 
They  became  aware,  too,  that  here  was  a  man  of 


172  CAPTAII^  BICKEL 

finer  stuff  than  the  Islands  had  produced,  one  of 
nature's  noblemen.  Democratic  he  was  to  the 
core,  and  plebeian,  if  to  be  democratic  is  to  be 
cosmopolitian  in  symj)athy  and  find  companions 
in  men  of  every  class,  if  to  be  i^lebeian  is  to  con- 
descend to  men  of  low  estate,  and  see  in  the 
humblest  labourer  a  brother.  But  there  was  some- 
thing innately  aristocratic  in  his  mien  and  bearing, 
something  patrician  in  his  spirit,  something  in- 
herited from  the  days  when  the  Von  Bickels  were 
Barons  of  the  Castle,  some  strain  of  a  higher 
nobility  gained  from  the  refining  influences  of  the 
home  in  Hamburg,  gained  most  of  all  in  daily 
companionship  with  Christ. 

He  was  evidently  earnest  and  sincere,  however 
absurd  his  theology  might  be,  a  man  of  pure  heart 
and  a  clean  life.  He  was  gentle,  too,  and  kindly. 
Foreigners  at  the  open  ports  had  the  name  of  being 
rude,  harsh  and  haughty  in  their  dealings  with 
the  Japanese  common  people.  But  here  was  a 
foreigner  with  proper  self-respect,  indeed,  but  self- 
forgetful  ;  humble,  patient  and  friendly ;  accessible 
to  the  poorest  and  meanest.  His  tact,  courtesy 
and  sympathy,  his  eagerness  to  aid  any  one  in  diffi- 
culty, to  comfort  any  one  in  sorrow, — these  were 
keys  that  unlocked  their  hearts. 

Behind  his  foreign  dress,  his  foreign  face,  his 
yet  broken  Japanese  speech,  they  saw  a  real  man, 
of  a  sort  new  to  their  experience,  one  to  be  trusted 
and  loved.  The  immediate  impression  he  made 
was,  that  he  had  come  to  be  a  friend,  and  are  not 
human  hearts  on  the  Islands,  as  elsewhere,  hungry 
for  love?  More  than  the  word  preached  at  the 
successive  meetings,  he  was  himself  the  Message. 


WINNING  THE  ISLANDEES  173 

In  a  sense,  tlie  Word  vas  made  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  them,  and  it  is  always  the  incarnate  word 
which  speaks  home  to  men's  hearts.    It  was  be- 
cause he  was  a  veritable  Christian,  embodying  the 
Christian  spirit,  a  man  with  the  mind  of  the  Mas- 
ter that  the  Fukuin  Maru  Mission  meant  the  dawn 
of  a  new  day  to  all  the  little  Island  world.    Sunple- 
minded  people  began  to  listen  to  Mm,  to  appreciate 
him,  to  trust  him,  by  and  by  even  to  love  hma.    It 
was  only  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort,  or  selt- 
important   of&cials,   or  priests  whose   particular 
temple   of   Diana   might   suffer   loss   of   revenue 
through  the  spread  of  the  new  faith,  who  could 

continue  to  oppose.  .     « +„ 

"  They  commenced,"  says  Mr.  Briggs  again,     to 
pass  around  stories  of  little  things  in  the  Captain  s 
life     He  was  always  unmistakably  the  master,  but 
instead  of  making  his  fellow-workers  serve  him,  he 
always  carried  the  largest  share  of  the  burdens 
They  saw  him  tramping  over  the  moimtams  with 
the  heavy  stereopticon  and  fixtures  on  his  back, 
while   the    Japanese    evangelist    carried   a   little 
bundle  of  tracts  and  a  lantern.     The  story  went 
around  of  one  of  the  evangelists  being  reluctant 
to  wet  his   good  clothes   in  crossing   a   swollen 
stream,  so  the  Captain  carried  the  baggage  across, 
and  then  took  the  preacher,  good  clothes  and  all, 
on  his  back  and  landed  him  on  the  other  shore. 
A  fat  evangelist  would  repeat  with  tears  the  story 
of  being  out  on  the  mountain  one  night  when  a  cold 
storm  broke  upon  them,  and  the  Captain  insisted 
on  taking  off  his  own  coat  to  wrap  around  his 
companion's  shivering  form.    A  lighthouse-keeper  s 
wife  made  much  of  the  fierce  looking  foreigner 


174  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

taking  her  baby  and  bundles  and  seeing  tbem  all 
safely  across  a  dangerous  jmss  in  tbe  cliffs. 

'^  Still,  the  disapi^earance  of  distrust  and  the 
coming  of  confidence  was  so  gradual  that  no  one 
realized  the  change  until  the  time  came  when  he 
would  be  sent  for,  or  waited  for,  to  help  decide 
some  important  family  matter,  it  might  be  a  boy's 
future,  it  might  be  the  dealing  with  a  prodigal  son, 
or  an  unfaithful  and  abusive  husband,  or  it  might 
be  the  principal  of  a  school  leaving  the  matter  of 
punishing  some  scholar  to  be  decided  by  the  Cap- 
tain. Not  until  such  calls  came  to  really  consume 
much  of  his  time  was  it  realized  that  these  people, 
whose  hearts  were  steeled  against  Christianity  and 
its  representatives,  had  come  to  wait  with  eager- 
ness for  the  sight  of  the  shii>,  and  to  count  it  a  joy 
and  help  to  meet  the  Christian  Captain.'' 

The  Jesus-Captain  of  the  Jesus-Ship,  like  the 
Jesus  of  the  Gospels,  went  about  doing  good,  not 
spectacularly  nor  professionally,  merely  as  good 
missionary  tactics,  but  instinctively,  inevitably,  as 
Jesus  Himself  did,  in  a  free  service  of  love.  In  time 
of  storm  he  succoured  those  who  were  in  peril  on 
the  sea,  in  time  of  accident  he  afforded  first  aid  to 
the  injured.  To  the  sick  he  came  with  medicine, 
to  those  whose  hearts  were  perplexed  and  desiDair- 
ing,  with  comfort  and  cheer.  He  was  everybody's 
friend.  It  was  a  new  phenomenon  in  the  Inland 
Sea.  They  had  never  known  love  after  this  fashion. 
The  same  Christ-filled  personality  which  we  have 
seen  winning  and  transmuting  the  vessel's  crew,  and 
lifting  to  new  heights  of  service  and  sacrifice  the 
little  company  of  evangelists,  soon  began  to  draw 
also  the  people  of  the  Islands.     Slowly,  slowly  it 


WINKING  THE  ISLANDEES  175 

was,  for  tlie  days  or  hours  of  Ms  stay  at  any  given 
place  must  be  few,  and  it  was  only  glimpses  of  liis 
life  the  Islanders  could  get;  but  bit  by  bit  tlieir 
suspicion,  contempt  or  hostility  were  replaced  by 
confidence,  admiration  and  affection.  If  the  Cap- 
tain was  a  Christian,  a  Jesus-Teacher,  then  the 
new  doctrine,  they  presently  began  to  admit,  how- 
ever strange  and  mysterious  and  apparently  absurd 
it  might  be,  could  hardly  be  an  unmitigated  evil. 

And  when  the  light  of  the  Christian  life  which 
they  saw  in  the  Captain  began  to  glow  in  the 
Shepherds  of  the  Isles,  men  in  whose  hearts  he 
had  kindled  a  divine  ardour,  men  of  their  own 
blood  and  speech  in  whom  the  foreigner's  Message 
became  vernacular;  and  Avhen  they  saw  this  same 
unearthly  beauty  of  love  and  sacrifice  in  the  very 
sailors  of  the  forecastle,  lads  from  their  own  is- 
lands, whose  wild  lives  had  been  village  talk,  the 
Islanders  had  come  a  long  way  on  the  road  to 
surrender. 

Nor  must  we  forget  the  winsomeness  of  the 
Gospel  itself.  In  beauty,  interest  and  attractive- 
ness there  is  nothing  to  compare  with  it  in  any 
of  the  pagan  religions,  not  even  in  the  sacred  books 
of  Buddhism.  The  narrative  of  the  life  of  Christ, 
His  works  of  mercy  and  words  of  love.  His  sacri- 
ficial death  on  the  cruel  Cross,  His  glorious 
Resurrection,  makes  a  strong  appeal  to  every 
normal  human  heart.  Even  from  the  mere  printed 
page  that  story  speaks  home.  The  first  Protestant 
Christians  in  Japan,  we  are  told,  were  Wakasano- 
Kami  and  members  of  his  family,  who  were  con- 
verted through  his  finding,  in  1855,  a  Dutch 
Testament   floating   on  the  waters   of   Nagasaki 


176  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

Harbour.  It  is  not  uncommon,  in  heatlien  lands, 
to  hear  of  individuals,  or  even  villages,  being  led 
to  embrace  Cliristianity  through  the  reading  of 
a  cox)y  of  the  New  Testament  that  has  come  into 
their  possession.  But  much  more  winsome  is 
the  Gospel  spoken  in  simplicity,  earnestness  and 
love,  by  a  hmnan  voice.  Embodied  in  the  ship, 
incarnated  in  the  Captain,  presented  in  a  simple 
language  which  all  could  understand  and  a  warmth 
of  sincerity  and  earnestness  which  all  could  feel, 
it  is  not  strange  that  it  early  began  to  meet  a  re- 
sponse in  the  Islanders'  hearts. 

"  The  sower  went  forth  to  sow  his  seed."  Luke, 
in  the  original,  gives  us  the  words  in  a  line  of  per- 
fect poetry,  as  smooth  and  sweet  as  a  line  from  a 
Greek  lyric,  as  though  to  hint  to  us  the  beauty  of 
the  morning  and  the  hope  of  harvest.  In  the 
Inland  Sea  Mission  there  has  been  both  sowing 
and  reaping;  sowing  constant,  widespread  and 
bountiful ;  of  reaping,  a  sheaf  of  first  fruits,  earnest 
of  the  real  ingathering  by  and  by. 

The  deep  faith  which  possessed  the  Captain^s 
soul  that  the  Inland  Sea  Mission  had  been  ordained 
of  God  for  the  Christianization  of  these  long 
neglected  Islanders  we  believe  God  will  not  put  to 
shame,  and  we  look  for  days  of  large  ingathering 
in  the  not  distant  future.  The  facts  and  figures 
given  in  the  story  of  the  Mission  convey  but  a  very 
inadequate  idea  of  how  broadly  the  seed  has  been 
scattered  and  how  widespread  is  the  hidden  in- 
fluence of  the  Ship,  the  Captain  and  the  Message 
in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  The  Inland  Sea  Is- 
lands are  like  a  Japanese  field  of  winter  wheat,  the 
chief  part  of  which  is  still  under  ground.    A  big 


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WINNING  THE  ISLANDEES  177 

mat  of  roots  forms  during  the  long  winter  months, 
when  above  the  surface  the  eye  can  scarce  detect 
any  change,  and  when  the  spring  rains  and  warm 
winds  come  the  wheat  rushes  up  into  strength  and 
fruitfulness.  One  can  almost  see  it  grow.  In 
most  of  the  Island  world  the  seed  of  the  Kingdom 
is  still  in  the  period  of  secret  and  silent  growth. 
Here  and  there  a  few  ears  have  reached  an  early 
maturity,  but  these  are  only  a  kind  of  first  fruits 
of  an  abundant  harvest  that  may  be  confidently 
expected  in  the  near  future. 

"  In  that  day  there  shall  be  an  handful  of  corn 
in  the  earth,  upon  the  top  of  the  mountains:  the 
fruit  thereof  shall  shake  like  Lebanon." 

Whither  Thou  sendest, 
Whither  Thou  leadest, 

Thither  my  journey. 
Eastward  or  westward, 
Northward  or  southward, 
Dayward  or  nightward, 
Joyward  or  woeward, 
Homeward  or  starward, 
So  it  be  Thee-ward, 

Thither  my  journey. 


XIV 

WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  ISLANDS 

IN  the  Missionary  Movement  in  Japan,  the 
honour  with  which  Christianity  crowns  child- 
hood and  womanhood  is  not  forgotten.  For- 
tunately, the  women  of  the  Empire,  at  least  among 
the  common  people,  are  not  condemned  by  custom 
to  lives  of  seclusion.  When  evangelistic  services 
are  held  they  form  a  large  part  of  the  audience, 
and  there  are  about  as  many  women  as  men  en- 
rolled in  the  churches.  Much  has  been  done,  also, 
in  the  name  of  Christ,  for  the  moral  and  social 
elevation  of  the  womanhood  of  Japan.  Woman  is 
ceasing  to  be  a  chattel,  and  becoming  a  person. 
The  right  of  a  man  to  dispose  of  his  wife  or  daugh- 
ter as  it  may  please  him,  even  selling  her  if  he 
will  into  a  life  of  shameful  slavery,  has  been  suc- 
cessfully challenged.  The  Christian  forces,  with 
the  Salvation  Army  in  the  van,  are  lined  up  against 
the  powerful  brothel-masters,  and  against  the 
strongly  entrenched  system  of  licensed  vice  with  its 
tens  of  thousands  of  female  slaves.  Concubinage 
has  fallen  into  disrepute,  and  Emperor  Yoshihito 
is  the  husband  of  one  wife.  The  land  is  dotted 
with  high  grade  Christian  schools  for  girls ;  and  by 
the  establishing  of  women's  universities  the  state 
has  acknowledged  the  value  of  female  education. 

178 


WOMEN  AND  CHILDEEN  OF  THE  ISLANDS    179 

Thanks  to  the  influence,  direct  and  indirect,  of 
the  teaching  of  the  Son  of  Mary,  the  women  of 
Japan  are  coming  into  their  own. 

Childhood  has  not  suffered  such  wrongs  in  Japan 
as  in  many  heathen  nations.  Babies  are  almost 
always  welcome,  even  girl  babies.  Japanese 
youngsters  as  a  rule  are  well  fed,  well  clad,  and 
well  cared  for,  so  far  as  the  ability  of  the  parents 
permits.  The  cities  and  towns  are  full  of  boys 
and  girls  playing  happily  in  the  streets  thereof, 
as  in  the  ideal  city  of  Scripture.  Modern  Japan 
provides  a  modern  education  for  practically  all  her 
children,  even  those  in  the  remotest  hamlets  of  the 
mountains.  Christianity  is  making  her  own  con- 
tribution to  the  children's  welfare.  Christian 
Kindergartens  have  brought  brightness  to  many  a 
child^s  life.  Everj^vvhere  is  the  Sunday  school. 
The  Sunday-school  army  in  Japan  already  num- 
bers above  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  In  our 
Baptist  Missions  the  Sunday-school  scholars  out- 
number the  church  members  by  three  to  one. 
Providentially,  Sunday  is  the  weekly  school  holi- 
day, affording  an  opportunity  to  gather  the  boys 
and  girls  for  Christian  instruction.  One  of  the 
great  sights  of  Tokyo  is  the  annual  Sunday-school 
Rally,  when  many  thousands  of  gaily  dressed, 
bright  faced  little  lads  and  lasses  gather  in  Hibiya 
Park,  with  banners  and  music.  It  is  Christianity, 
too,  which  is  seeking  to  save  the  children  from 
failing  under  the  influence  of  alcohol  and  tobacco, 
and  is  lifting  its  hand  against  the  hungry  Moloch 
of  modern  industry,  to  whose  rapacity  multitudes 
of  the  children  of  the  poor  are  being  sacrificed. 

In  the  Inland  Sea  work  the  women  and  children 


180  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

are  charter  members,  so  to  speak.  Wlien  Captain 
Bickel  accepted  tlie  Inner  and  Outer  Isles  for  his 
parish  he  dedicated  his  life  to  all  the  Islanders — all 
the  men,  all  the  women  and  all  the  children.  There 
are  nearly  as  many  names  of  women  as  of  men  on 
the  Fukuin  Maru  Church  list,  and  myriads  of 
children  have  learned  to  love  the  Little  White 
Ship  and  her  Captain,  and  have  learned  something 
also  of  Him  who  loved  the  children  and  gathered 
them  into  His  arms.  The  time  when  the  long-suf- 
fering Skipper  was  greeted  at  the  village  beaches 
by  crowds  of  disorderly  boys  crying  "  foreign 
fool,"  "  evil  pig,"  and  like  affectionate  terms,  soon 
passed;  and  instead,  as  the  vessel  threaded  the 
island  channels,  from  the  hills  above  would  float 
down  the  music  of  childish  voices  singing  some  of 
the  songs  of  Zion.  To  our  Captain,  with  his 
chivalrous  and  tender  courtesy  toward  all  women, 
and  his  affectionate  kindliness  toward  all  children, 
the  blessing  which  the  vessel  brought  to  the  women 
and  children  of  the  Islands  was  one  of  the  deepest 
joys  of  his  work.  One  of  his  published  articles, 
dealing  with  this  topic,  is  given  below,  almost 
entire.  This  article  was  written  in  the  eleventh 
year  of  the  vessel's  work. 

Island  Women  and  Children 

On  the  wooded  hillsides,  in  the  lowland  fields,  in  the 
farmyards,  in  the  ships,  in  the  boats,  at  the  looms,  in  the 
houses,  young  and  bright,  care-worn  and  thoughtful,  old 
and  haggard,  independent  yet  docile,  hard-working  and 
patient  ever,  they  are  here  in  their  tens  of  thousands — 
these  Island  women. 

They  are  here  in  their  hundreds  of  thousands,  these 


WOMEN  AND  CHILDEEN  OF  THE  ISLANDS    181 

Island  children,  in  the  schools  or  more  often  not,  in  thi 
homes  or  more  often  not,  helping  in  the  fields,  romping 
under  one's  feet,  playing  *'ride  a  horse  to  market"  by 
order  of  parental  authority,  which  in  America  would 
mean  that  eight-year-old  Bill  must  nurse  five-year-old 
Jack,  Jack  being  tied  to  Bill's  back  in  such  a  way  as  to 
present  a  strange  mixture  of  legs  and  arms  when  Bill 
plays  ''hopscotch,"  as  presently  he  does. 

The  workers  of  the  Fukuin  Maru  have  set  them- 
selves the  task,  not  of  giving  a  knowledge  of  Christian 
truth  to  certain  portions  of  the  population  of  this  wide 
field,  but  to  giving  a  knowledge  of  God  and  His  love  to 
every  man,  woman  and  child  who  can  be  persuaded  or 
beguiled  into  listening  to  the  message.  That  in  such  a 
vast  undertaking  work  for  women  and  children  must 
have  a  large  part,  need  not  be  stated.  That  to  attempt 
to  meet  the  wide  need  by  local  efforts  in  the  form  of 
kindergarten  work,  women's  societies,  mothers'  meet- 
ings, etc.,  would  demand  an  expenditure  and  a  staff  of 
workers  such  as  we  dare  not  hope  to  see,  is  also  ap- 
parent. 

We  had  to  plan  for  the  women  and  children  as  we 
did  for  the  men,  on  large,  broad  lines,  seeking  to  reach 
all  in  some  way,  while  not  neglecting  those  whose  heart 
attitude  might  claim  special  attention  and  help. 

It  is  true  that  we  have  two  Yugi-in,  a  type  of  kinder- 
garten not  needing  an  expensive  plant.  These  are  doing 
a  successful  work.  One  is  situated  in  the  East-Central 
Island  Division  at  Setoda,  the  other  in  the  Western 
Island  Division  at  Agenosho,  a  town  of  ten  thousand 
inhabitants.  Both  are  carried  on  in  the  spacious  local 
preaching  places.  The  workers  of  both  are  engaged  in 
Bible- woman's  and  Sunday-school  work,  going  often  ten 
or  fifteen  miles  in  all  manner  of  weather  in  a  small  boat 
to  hold  a  children's  meeting,  or  women's  meeting,  after 
the  kindergarten  work  in  the  forenoon  is  over,  or  on 
Sundays.    It  is  true  that  mothers'  meetings  and  women's 


182  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

societies  have  been  formed  in  some  places  by  the  evan- 
gelists* wives  and  the  kindergarten  workers.  It  is  true 
that  in  another  place  a  boys'  and  girls'  night  school  is 
carried  on,  and  in  another  a  sewing  class.  We  rejoice 
in  these  and  long  to  have  more  such  efforts  made.  That 
they  are  not  made  is  due  to  lack  of  means  and  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  field. 

But  our  hope  is  not  in  these  things,  good  as  they  are. 
It  is  in  the  work  of  public  appeal  and  teaching.  This 
is  the  widespread  and  general  work  and  mainstay,  while 
the  other  work,  that  of  the  kindergartens,  women's 
societies  and  mothers'  meetings,  is  but  incidental  and 
local.  Women  and  children  are  present  in  their  thou- 
sands in  the  meetings  held  by  the  ship  in  the  four  hun- 
dred towns  and  villages  visited.  In  these  meetings  a 
point  is  made  of  having  a  special  talk  for  children  be- 
fore the  large  general  meeting  is  held.  Women  and 
children  by  their  thousands  are  in  the  meetings  held  in 
the  fifty  regular  preaching  places  to  which  the  evangel- 
ists itinerate.  Women  and  children  in  their  thousands 
visit  the  ship  and  hundreds  come  to  special  women's  or 
children's  meetings  held  on  board.  Children  in  their 
hundreds  attend  the  special  children's  meetings  on  Sun- 
day-school lines  held  by  the  worker  in  the  colportage 
vessel,  No.  2  Fukuin  Maru.  These  children's  meetings, 
held  in  many  places  where  no  regular  Sunday  school  is 
yet  established,  are  a  great  feature  in  the  Island  work. 

Children  in  hundreds,  yes,  and  women  too,  attend 
regularly  the  forty  Sunday  schools  established  in  as 
many  towns  and  villages  in  the  Islands.  In  these  Sun- 
day schools  there  is  uniform  instruction  based  on  a 
series  of  Scripture  lesson-cards,  specially  prepared,  pub- 
lished and  sent  out  from  the  ship.  These  Sunday 
schools  are,  moreover,  not  what  are  known  as  "Street 
Sunday  schools."  We  know  these  scholars  and  their 
parents  and  have  access  to  their  homes,  as  we  have  to  a 
thousand  other  homes,  and  we  have  their  confidence. 


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WOMEN  AND  CHILDEEN  OF  THE  ISLANDS    183 

We  are  no  longer  doing  mission  work  with  strangers, 
for  in  many  places  the  ship  and  its  workers  are  a  part 
of  the  village  life.  To  create  this  confidence  we  have 
toiled  for  years  in  these  Islands,  but  the  result  of  the 
toiling  and  the  possibilities  opening  before  us  on  every 
hand  cannot  be  expressed  in  words.  We  will  mention 
but  a  few  of  the  evidences  of  these  results,  taken  at 
random. 

Whereas  we  reported  ten  organized  Sunday  schools 
last  year,  and  twenty-six  in  January  this  year,  we  now 
have  forty  fully  organized  and  requests  in  hand  from 
over  twenty  other  towns  and  villages  for  the  establish- 
ment of  regular  Sunday-school  work  as  opposed  to  the 
periodical  children's  meetings.  Were  means  available 
these  would  be  established  within  a  month  and  more 
would  rapidly  follow.  Two  thousand  people  were 
gathered  in  a  recent  Sunday-school  rally,  the  banners  of 
eleven  Sunday  schools  from  eleven  different  islands 
floating  bravely  in  the  breeze  at  a  place  where  not  long 
since  we  were  refused  even  house-room. 

A  number  of  girls  have  been  induced  to  seek  educa- 
tion in  various  Christian  schools  on  the  mainland  and 
have  become  Christians  there.  Girls  and  boys  and 
young  women  have  been  introduced  to  permanent  Chris- 
tian influences.  The  wrongs  and  sufferings  of  many 
women  in  Island  homes  have  been  adjusted,  and  others 
saved  from  serious  temptations  and  wrong. 

Eight  thousand  people  were  gathered  in  our  im- 
pressive Sunday-school  services  at  Christmas,  hearing  an 
earnest  presentation  of  the  old  story  of  the  revelation 
of  God's  love  in  the  coming  of  the  Christ-child.  These 
are  but  a  few  examples ;  the  work  is  so  widespread  that 
they  could  be  indefinitely  multiplied. 

The  work,  then,  in  these  Islands  for  women  and 
children  must  be  regarded  as  simply  an  adjunct  to  the 
general  work  of  evangelization.  It  is  a  large  and  vital 
part  of  a  far-reaching,  all-embracing  plan  to  lead  the 


184  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

Island  people  up  out  of  the  deep  depths  of  prejudice 
and  superstition  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  heights  of 
a  knowledge  of  God  and  His  love  and  pardon  revealed 
in  Christ.  And  if  in  these  Islands  the  love,  the  tender- 
ness, the  purity,  the  suffering  of  the  Man  of  Galilee  ap- 
peal most  readily  to  the  children  and  women,  what 
wonder?  Has  it  not  ever  been  so,  from  the  day  when 
children  sang  hosannas  by  the  way,  from  the  day  when 
women  wept  and  watched  at  the  foot  of  His  cross?  In 
all  lands  and  at  all  times  to  the  present  day  they  have 
most  readily  responded  to  His  call.  May  God  give  us 
wisdom  and  power,  yes,  and  a  Christlike,  all-embracing 
love,  that  we  may  be  able  to  lead  these  Island  women 
and  children  to  their  Father's  home. 

From  the  very  beginning  of  the  work  emphasis 
was  placed  on  winning  the  children,  the  Captain 
being  wise  enough  to  know  that  the  winning  of  the 
children  means  the  permanent  conquest  of  the 
Islands.  When  a  leading  man  on  a  certain  island 
which  had  not  proved  very  hospitable  to  the  new 
religion  condoled  with  the  Captain  in  a  tone  of 
veiled  mockery  on  his  failure  to  make  an  impres- 
sion on  the  people,  the  Captain  calmly  replied  that 
the  island  was  already  as  good  as  won  for  Chris- 
tianity, "For,''  said  he,  "we  have  captured  the 
children,  and  that  means  we  have  captured  the 
island." 

The  first  Sunday  school  was  established  in  1901, 
at  Tonosho,  on  the  Island  of  Shozu,  as  an  integral 
part  of  the  very  first  permanent  work  attempted, 
in  the  first  evangelistic  centre  opened;  our  friend 
Toda,  hero  of  the  two  swords,  being  superintend- 
ent, teachers,  secretary,  treasurer  and  sexton. 
During  the  next  ten  years  the  number  of  schools 


WOMEK  AND  CHILDEEN  OF  THE  ISLANDS    185 

steadily  increased,  as  other  centres  of  work  were 
opened,  and  as  the  number  of  available  Sunday- 
school  helpers  was  multiplied,  until  in  1912  there 
were  more  than  fifty  schools  being  carried  on,  with 
a  roll  of  over  three  thousand  pupils.  In  addition 
to  these  there  were  held  in  many  places,  as  oppor- 
tunity offered,  children's  meetings,  which  were 
ready  to  blossom  out  into  full  fledged  Sunday 
schools,  if  a  mixed  metaphor  is  allowable,  so  soon 
as  suitable  teachers  could  be  secured.  There  was 
a  constant  demand  from  every  direction  for  the 
establishing  of  schools  in  new  places,  and  almost 
any  year  after  the  movement  was  under  way  a 
score  of  new  schools  could  have  been  opened  with 
the  glad  approval  of  the  Islanders,  had  there  been 
workers  available  for  carrying  them  on.  As  it  was, 
it  was  necessary  to  refuse  many  requests,  and  np 
to  last  year  to  keep  the  number  of  regular  Sunday 
schools  down  to  sixty  or  so,  Vv^ith  a  membership  of 
some  four  thousand.  It  is  pleasant  to  think  what 
this  work  for  the  children  means  for  the  progress 
of  Christian  work  in  general  among  the  Islands  a 
few  years  from  now. 

One  cannot  think  of  a  Sunday  school,  at  least 
in  Japan,  without  thinking  also  of  Christmas,  the 
Festival  of  the  coming  of  the  Christ-child,  and  pre- 
eminently the  Children's  Festival.  Christmas  is 
not  the  least  of  the  blessings  which  the  Little  White 
Ship  has  brought  to  the  children  of  the  Inland  Sea. 
But  how  they  keep  Christmas  on  the  Islands  may 
well  form  the  theme  of  a  separate  chapter. 


XV 

CHRISTMAS  IN  THE  INLAND  SEA 

IT  is  a  summer  evening  in  Omachi.  The  day 
lias  been  hot  and  sultry,  but  with  sunset  a 
delicious  cool  breeze  draws  down  from  the 
snow-streaked  ranges  of  the  Japanese  Alps,  the 
Hida-Shinshu  mountains  of  central  Japan,  that 
overlook  tlie  valley.  As  one  steps  out  through  the 
latticed  doors  of  the  spacious  old  building  which 
serves  the  Christians  of  Omachi  for  church  and 
parsonage,  and  which  stands  midway  of  the  main 
thoroughfare  of  this  old-fashioned  country  town, 
he  finds  himself  in  the  midst  of  a  bright  and  bus- 
tling scene.  North  and  sou.th,  to  the  street's  ends, 
before  every  dwelling  is  blazing  a  cheerful  little 
bonfire,  and  the  street  is  full  of  boys  and  girls,  with 
some  older  people,  replenishing  these  fires,  and 
enjoying  their  blaze  and  craclde.  It  is  the  eve  of 
the  Bon  Mat  surly  or  Odoriy  a  sort  of  Feast  of  All 
Souls,  when  for  several  days  the  gates  of  Hades 
are  set  open,  and  the  spirits  of  the  dead  are  suf- 
fered to  return  for  a  brief  visit  to  their  earthly 
homes.  In  honour  of  their  coming  there  has  been 
a  general  clean-up  in  the  several  cemeteries,  and 
housewives  have  been  busy  preparing  toothsome 
dishes  for  the  family  feast,  part  of  which  is  set 
aside  for  the  invisible  guests.     The  tiny  bonfire 

186 


CHEISTMAS  IN  THE  INLAND  SEA         187 

before  each  door  serves  both  as  a  welcome  to  the 
returning  spirit,  and  as  a  light  to  guide  him  to  his 
old  home,  and  will  be  lighted  for  him  again  when 
he  takes  his  journey  back  to  the  Land  of  Shades. 
It  is  the  yearly  family  reunion. 

In  each  of  the  thousand  homes  of  Omachi  the 
feast   is   kept.     :N^o,    not   in   every    one.      Pastor 
Kaneko  has  lighted  no  bonfire  before  the  parson- 
age ;  nor  is  there  any  cheerful  blaze  in  front  of  the 
home   of  Deacon  Nambu,  across   the  street,  the 
leading  lay  Christian  in  the  community ;  nor  do  the 
other  Christian  families  scattered  through  the  town 
share  in  the  festival  doings.     Their  Christian  con- 
science does  not  permit  them  to  join  in  the  cele- 
bration of  this  heathen  festival.     And  as  it  is  in 
Omachi,  which  is  mentioned  simply  as  the  one  of 
ten  thousand  similar  country  towns  best  known  to 
the  writer,  so  it  is  also  throughout  the  empire, 
including   the   Islands   of   the   Inland    Sea.^    The 
Christians  have  lost  their  summer  festival,  with  all 
its  pleasant  social  and  domestic  features.     And 
along  with  the  Bon  Festival  have  gone  the  Festivals 
of  the  Spring  and  Autumn  Equinoxes,  the  Festival 
of  the  First  Tasting  of  the  New  Kice,  and  other 
annual  celebrations  observed  throughout  the  land, 
for  all  these  are  bound  up  with  the  old  faiths. 

In  Omachi,  and  in  every  town  and  village,  in 
addition  to  these  nation-wide  festivals,  are  kept 
year  by  year  the  feasts  of  the  local  gods  whose 
groves  and  temples  are  the  beauty  spots  of  the 
town.  On  such  occasions,  in  the  temple  areas, 
under  the  shadow  of  the  century-old  trees,  wres- 
tling, archery  and  other  sports  are  carried  on;  and 
theatricals  of  a  primitive  order,  a  sort  of  miracle 


188  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

plays,  are  performed  by  comically  masked  players, 
supposedly  to  x:)rovide  a  sort  of  holiday  treat  for 
the  resident  deity;  and  in  the  evening  the  sacred 
car  in  vhich  he  is  supposed  to  ride  is  drawn  in 
noisy  procession  through  the  princii)al  streets  of 
the  town,  by  hundreds  of  shouting  Avorshippers,  to 
the  music  of  flute,  fife,  and  drum.  The  whole 
town,  or  ward,  is  en  fete^  illuminated  with  gaily 
painted  lanterns.  From  all  the  countryside  the 
farmer  folk  have  gathered  to  witness  the  sports 
and  the  procession,  and  to  eat  and  drink  with  their 
town  cousins.  Each  of  these  local  festivals  is  not 
only  a  religious  but  a  social  and  recreational  event. 
And  because  they  are  held  in  honour  of  heathen 
gods  Christian  people  must  stand  aloof  from  them. 
One  of  the  problems  facing  the  Church  in  Jai)an, 
as  in  other  Mission  Fields,  is:  Shall  the  existing 
heathen,  festivals  be  adopted  and  purified  from 
idolatrous  elements,  or  shall  distinctly  Christian 
festivals  be  substituted  for  them?  For,  without 
controversy,  the  Christian  community  in  its  social 
and  recreational  life  must  not  be  left  cold  and 
hungry.  "Historically  all  the  rites,  feasts,  cere- 
monials and  celebrations  of  religion  have  held 
something  of  the  nature  of  play,  both  in  terms  of 
their  sociable  and  congregate  spirit,  and  by  virtue 
of  their  symbolic  nature.'^  Japanese  Christianity 
must  have  its  solemn  and  joyous  feasts  and  cele- 
brations, with  their  social  element  and  spirit  of 
play.  Of  a  sociable,  gregarious  nature,  fond  of 
the  spectacular,  enjoying  keenly  holiday  and  festal 
occasions,  they  can  never  be  quite  satisfied  with  a 
religion  which  would  ignore  the  social  side  of  life, 
and  afford  no  field  for  the  activity  of  the  spirit  of 


CHEISTMAS  IK  THE  IKLAl^D  SEA         189 

play.  Fortunately  tlie  religion  tliat  Jesus  taught 
is  pre-eminently  a  social  religion,  and  friendly  to 
ull  innocent  social  enjoyments. 

Doubtless  some  of  the  heathen  festivals  will 
eventually  be  adopted  by  Christianity,  with 
idolatrous  and  other  objectionable  features  deleted. 
Already  the  chief  holiday  of  the  year,  the  New 
Year  festival,  is  abundantly  observed  by  both 
Christians  and  non-Christians,  and  so  also  is  the 
Emperor's  birthday,  the  celebration  of  neither  of 
these  necessitating  any  idolatrous  observances. 
Nii-Naini-Saiy  the  Festival  of  the  First  Tasting  of 
the  I^ew  Kice,  may  well  become,  with  slight  modi- 
fications, the  Japanese  Christian  Thanksgiving, 
and  the  Festival  of  the  Spring  Equinox,  in  the  sea- 
son of  many  flowers,  may  easily  be  transferred  and 
transformed  into  the  Christian  Spring  Festival  of 
Easter.  Some  of  the  heathen  celebrations  may  be 
so  radically  heathen  that  they  are  beyond  redemp- 
tion, and  for  these  we  must  substitute  something 
that  Christianity  has  in  its  gift. 

Of  what  we  term  the  church  feasts,  Christmas  is 
the  only  one  which  has  so  far  won  a  large  place 
for  itself  in  Japan.  Easter,  with  its  great  hope 
and  joy  born  of  the  Eesurrection  of  our  Lord, 
still  waits  to  be  naturalized,  and  is  hardly  spoken 
of  outside  the  churches.  But  the  spectacular, 
picturesque,  joyous  nature  of  the  Christmas  Fes- 
tival, with  its  bright  decorations  and  sprightly 
music,  its  charming  stories  of  the  Shepherds  and 
the  Star,  the  Blessed  Mother  and  the  Divine  Babe, 
speaks  right  home  to  the  Japanese  heart.  Christ- 
mas has  not  yet,  indeed,  come  to  its  own  in  family 
life,  and  is  not  that  happy  home  festival  which  w© 


190  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

have  made  it  in  the  West,  but  it  has  gained  a  certain 
amount  of  recognition  even  outside  Christian  cir- 
cles. The  merchants  in  the  large  cities  are  awake 
to  the  commercial  use  to  which  the  day  may  be  put. 
Walk  down  the  Ginza  in  Tokyo  on  Christmas  Eve 
and  you  will  find  a  Christmas  display  in  the  shop 
Vrindows  rivalling  that  which  an  American  city  can 
afford.  Christmas  comes  just  at  the  right  time 
of  year  to  find  a  welcome.  New  Year,  the  great 
universal  annual  holiday,  is  at  hand,  and  festivity 
is  in  the  air.  Already  the  streets  are  being  beauti- 
fied with  tufted  pine  and  feathery  bamboo,  and 
brightened  with  gay  coloured  flags  and  lanterns. 
When  one  walks  abroad  Christmas  morning  and 
finds  the  air  sweet  with  the  balsam  of  pines  and 
musical  with  the  whisper  of  bamboo,  and  the  day 
full  of  the  colour  and  bustle  of  people  preparing 
to  keep  holiday,  it  gives  him  a  very  Christmassy 
feeling  indeed.  The  practice  of  observing  Christ- 
mas will  probably  much  outrun  the  general  prog- 
ress of  Christianity  in  Japan,  but  is  in  part  an 
index  of  the  growth  of  Christian  work  and  an  aid 
in  the  promotion  of  that  work.  And  that  brings  us 
back  to  the  Islanders  and  their  Sunday  schools. 
Outside  the  large  cities  one  does  not  find  any  rec- 
ognition of  the  Christmas  Festival  by  the  non- 
Christian  public,  except  as  they  may  be  invited  to 
share  in  it  by  Christian  friends.  It  is  in  the 
churches,  the  various  Christian  schools,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  Sunday  schools,  that  the  feast  is  kept. 
Countless  thousands,  however,  of  those  not  yet  be- 
lievers gather  gladly  to  the  Christian  celebrations, 
and  enter  heartily  into  the  joyous  spirit  of  the 
occasion.    With  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Sun- 


CHEISTMAS  IN  THE  INLAND  SEA         191 

day-scliool  scholars,  and  forty  or  fifty  tlioiisand 
pupils  in  Cliristian  schools,— to  speak  now  of 
Protestant  missions  only— and  with  a  hundred 
thousand  adult  church  members,  who  would  hate 
to  miss  a  Christmas  gathering,  and  with  all  the 
non-Christian  friends  who  eagerly  accept  an  in- 
vitation to  be  present,  there  must  be  well  up  to 
half  a  million  people  who  year  by  year  listen  to 
the  Christmas  songs  and  the  Christmas  addresses. 

Captain  Bickel  was  quick  to  recognize  the  use 
that  might  be  made  of  Christmas  in  the  Inland  Sea 
work,  and  through  his  initiative  it  speedily  became 
the  brightest  spot  in  the  year  to  many  thousands  of 
the  Island  children,  and  to  many  thousands  of 
grown-ups,  their  parents  and  friends.  Christmas 
on  the  Islands  means  a  whole  series  of  celebrations, 
covering  sixty  islands,  strung  out  for  hundreds  of 
miles,  and  the  ship's  Christmas  campaign  lasts 
from  December  to  February.  In  the  aggregate, 
four  or  five  thousand  children  and  as  many  adults 
are  gathered  into  these  Christmas  meetings,  which 
are  not  only  of  a  festive  and  joyous  but  of  a  dis- 
tinctly religious  and  evangelistic  nature. 

Let  us  take  a  peep  at  one  of  these  pleasant 
gatherings.  We  are  in  Setoda,  once  so  hostile, 
now  so  friendly  to  the  Mission  Vessel.  We  need 
not  ask  the  way  to  the  church,  everybody  seems  to 
be  bound  there.  Arrived  at  the  entrance  we  find 
the  little  yard  and  court  covered  with  tiny  pairs  of 
wooden  clogs,  the  owners  of  which  are  seated  in 
close  ranks  on  the  matted  floor  of  the  audience 
room.  Out-of-doors  the  December  wind  strikes  to 
one's  marrow,  but  Mhachi  full  of  glowing  coals,  set 
here  and  there,  make  it  warm  and  cozy  inside.    The 


192  CAPTAIX  BICKEL 

walls  are  draped  with  many  coloured  flags  bor- 
rowed from  the  ship,  and  rows  of  gay  lanterns 
depend  from  the  ceiling.  The  room  is  packed  to  the 
limit  with  the  children  and  their  friends. 

"  Surely  the  dear  Christ-child  rejoiced  as  on 
Christmas  last  two  hundred  and  seventy  people, 
young  and  old,  gathered  here  to  celebrate  His  birth. 
Eager  hands  had  helped  decorate  the  house.  The 
important  men  of  the  place  came.  Even  the  mayor 
was  there,  and  his  son,  a  bright  lad,  read  a  short 
essay,  written  by  himself,  on  the  meaning  of  the 
event.  Better  still,  Uwo,  the  old  fisherman,  and 
Ms  son,  a  bright  lad  too,  were  present,  for  there 
is  no  room  for  class  distinctions  here. 

"  One  young  man  read  a  paper.  It  was  signifi- 
cant :  he  was  a  Normal  School  student,  and  was  of 
a  religious  turn  of  mind.  Now  religions  are  many, 
and  he  said  he  was  going  to  ^  have  it  out '  ;  hence 
he  took  lodgings  in  a  Buddhist  temple  with  a 
priest,  then  went  to  the  priest  and  to  our  evangelist 
and  asked  each  openly  for  instruction,  attending 
each  on  alternate  days.  Finally  he  began  to  pray. 
When  men  pray  there  is  hope.  There  are  four 
men  praying  there  now  hence  we  have  hope.  Well, 
this  man  prayed,  and  on  this  Christmas  Eve  he  read 
a  paper  in  favour  of  Christianity.  Thus  he  read 
publicly,  unasked,  his  soul's  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence, the  first  heard  here  in  all  the  ages.  It 
was  a  bold,  brave  deed.  *Who  follows  in  his 
train? ' " 

The  two  items  mentioned,  the  essay  and  the 
paper,  form  of  course  a  very  small  part  of  the 
program.  A  Sunday-school  celebration  in  Japan 
is  not  something  to  be  hurried  over  within  a  brief 


B 

O 

C 

c 


o 


a 

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CHEISTMAS  IN  THE  INLAND  SEA         193 

fleeting  hour.  It  is  the  event  of  the  year,  long 
looked  forward  to  and  prepared  for,  and  long  to  be 
remembered.  No  one  will  grudge  devoting  several 
hours  to  it,  nor  find  the  cushionless  mats  too  hard, 
no  matter  how  long  the  entertaimnent  be  continued. 

The  gifts  distributed  to  the  children  on  these 
occasions  are  very  simple  and  inexpensive,  con- 
sisting usually  of  gay  coloured  kites,  battledores, 
or  other  Japanese  toys,  accompanied  with  small 
parcels  of  cake  and  oranges.  To  the  older  persons 
present  tea  and  cake  are  commonly  served,  follow- 
ing Japanese  custom,  and  to  foster  sociability.  As 
the  Fukuin  Maru  had  sixty  Christmas  entertain- 
ments to  provide  for,  and  four  thousand  children, 
while  her  finances  were  in  a  chronic  state  of  ex- 
haustion, the  gifts  distributed  must  have  been  very 
cheap  and  simple  indeed. 

On  another  page  of  the  Captain's  log  we  are  told 
of  a  Christmas  celebration  held  in  a  Buddhist 
temple.  Our  old  friend,  Bo's'n  Hirata,  now  skipper 
of  the  Fukuin  Maru  No.  2,  and  Colporter-at-large, 
began  early  in  December  to  hold  a  series  of  chil- 
dren's meetings,  which  continued  daily  for  seven- 
teen days.  "  The  village  lent  him  a  Buddhist 
temple  for  the  purpose.  An  enthusiastic  villager 
prepared  and  presented  a  sign-board,  and  hung  it 
up  outside  the  temple.  It  read,  'Fukuin  Maru 
Sunday  School.'  The  children  were  divided  into 
classes.  Sunday-school  bear  stories  and  fish  tales 
were  barred  out.  They  were  taught  the  Beati- 
tudes, the  Lord's  Prayer,  tb^  Ten  Commandments, 
1  Corinthians  13,  etc.,  etc.,  and  also  hymns. 
When  Christmas  came  our  villager  trimmed  the 
temple  with  red  paper  lanterns  and  invited  the 


194  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

wliole  village.  Tlie  children  sang  li^nnns  and  re- 
cited Scripture,  and  all  was  followed  by  an  earnest 
Gospel  talk  by  the  colporter-skipper  of  the  No,  2 
Fukuin  Maru,  in  the  very  presence  of  the  Buddhist 
images.  At  the  close  the  village  unanimously  asked 
for  another  series  of  meetings  at  an  early  date." 

To  be  present  at  these  festive  occasions  some- 
times cost  our  good  Captain  no  end  of  toil  and 
hardship,  for  winter  is  cold  and  stormy  on  the 
Inland  Sea.  In  a  tale  of  the  sea,  under  the  title 
"  How  We  Got  There,"  he  has  left  us  a  very  enter- 
taining account  of  his  adventures  at  a  certain  yule- 
tide,  when  leaving  his  family  cozily  housed  for  the 
winter  in  the  hospitable  mission  home  at  Himeji, 
he  fought  his  way  from  island  to  island,  drenched 
and  frozen  by  the  bitter  December  gales,  that  he 
might  add  something  to  the  good  cheer  and  helj)- 
f ulness  of  the  Christmas  festival  among  the  Island 
Folk.  The  story,  however,  is  over  long  for  our 
pages. 

To  God  in  highest  Heaven 
All  glory  be! 
And  on  Earth  peace 
To  men  of  His  goodwill ! 
Such  was  the  angels'  song  to  shepherds  given. 

Nor  doth  its  music  cease. 
Thou  who  didst  chide  and  quell  the  angry  sea, 

On  Galilee, 
Speak  Thou  again,  and  let  the  warring  world. 
Its  tumult  stayed,  its  blood-stained  banners  furled, 
At  Thy  rebuke  be  still ! 


XVI 

THE  HOME  ON  THE  SHIP 

Love  stayed  not 
To  glass  her  beauty  in  the  flow  of  Phrat 
Or  bind  her  roses  by  the  Hiddekel; 
But  came  abroad  to  bless  a  world  forlorn. 
Where'er  her  footsteps  fall  new  founts  of  life 
lycap  sparkling  from  t   -  desert.    Fairest  blooms, 
Whose  seed  is  waft  from  Eden,  by  her  path 
Lift  up  their  shining  faces,— Father-Heart 
And  Mother-Love,  and  Innocence-of-Babes, 
And  Lover's-Bliss,  and  Sister-Constancy. 
She  lights  the  hearths  of  all  the  happy  earth. 
And  children's  feet  make  music  after  her. 
And  hers  are  all  the  joys  that  hallow  home. 

THE  toil  and  hardship  which  our  good 
Skipper  was  willing  to  undergo  in  order 
to  spend  Christmas  Day  with  his  wife  and 
bairns  at  Himeji,  and  his  return  after  but  a  single 
day  of  domestic  felicity  to  his  strenuous  work 
among  the  Islands,  despite  the  bitter  winter 
weather,  are  suffi.cient  of  themselves  to  attest  both 
his  love  for  his  family,  and  his  devotion  to  his 
work.  During  the  rough,  wild  winter  months, 
when  the  dangers  and  discomforts  of  navigation 
were  m.ore  than  he  could  permit  wife  and  children 
to  endure,  the  bright  fireside  at  47  Shimotera 
Machi, — or  later,  at  120  Goken  Yashiki — in  Himeji, 
became  the  Captain's  lode-star.  But  save  for  a 
brief  flying  visit  like  that  of  Christmas  Day,  he 

196 


196  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

stood  by  his  ship  and  by  his  Islanders,  be  it  never, 
so  cold  and  stormy.  For  the  rest  of  the  year,  how- 
ever, the  Captain  usually  had  the  great  happiness 
of  having  his  family  with  him. 

Down  in  the  bosom  of  the  Little  White  Ship  was 
a  little  white  room.  One  reached  it  by  climbing 
down  the  companionway  to  the  'tween-decks.  On 
right  and  left,  doors  opened  into  tiny  bedrooms,  as 
a  landlubber  might  call  them,  little  white  cabins, 
each  with  two  little  white  berths,  with  immaculate 
white  pillows  and  spreads.  Each  little  cabin  had 
a  little  round  window,  technically  known  as  a  port- 
hole, and  openable  only  in  fine  weather,  or  when 
the  sailors  were  not  swabbing  down  the  decks. 
The  little  white  room — the  cabin  par  excellence — 
depended  for  its  illumination  upon  the  skylight, 
and  always  seemed  dim  and  shadowy  to  one  coming 
down  from  the  full  light  of  the  main  deck.  It 
boasted  of  no  chairs,  sofas  or  lounges,  but  on  the 
starboard  side  stood  a  large  plain  table  covered 
with  a  dark  cloth,  which  served  in  turn  as  work- 
table,  chart-table,  and  dining-table ;  as  the  altar  for 
ship's  worship  and  family  worship  and  as  board  of 
palaver.  Along  the  wall  at  one  end  and  one  side  of 
this  table  ran  a  series  of  little  covered  chests  or 
boxes,  nautically  termed  lockers.  These  were 
crammed  with  all  kinds  of  things — canned  provi- 
sions, clothing,  books  and  tracts,  ship  supplies 
and  what  not — and  with  their  lids  down  and 
gay  coloured  covers,  like  boat  cushions,  laid 
over  them,  became  the  chairs  and  sofas  of  the 
little  white  room.  A  baby  organ,  if  the  writer's 
memory  serves,  a  large  lamp  swinging  from  the 
wall,  and  some  photographs,  completed  the  fur- 


THE  HOME  ON  THE  SHIP  197 

nishing.  This  cabin,  witli  the  tiny  white  cabins 
opening  off  it,  was  what  our  Cai3tain  and  his 
family  called  "Home."  To  be  sure,  there  was 
also  the  beautiful  white  deck  with  its  canvas  awn- 
ings, so  spotlessly  clean  one  would  not  hesitate  to 
eat  off  it,  which  became  at  need  parlour,  verandah, 
nursery,  playground  and  place  of  public  worship; 
and  on  this  deck,  a  bit  abaft  the  forecastle,  was  the 
kitchen,  better  known  as  the  cook-house  or  the 
galley,  diminutive  to  a  degree,  but  a  model  of  neat- 
ness and  order.  Here  the  ship's  cook,  with  some 
assistance  from  the  Lady  of  the  Cabin,  prepared 
wholesome  and  appetizing  dishes,  in  Japanese  style 
for  the  crew,  and  in  American  style  for  the  Cap- 
tain's family. 

This  quaint,  dainty  little  dwelling  constantly 
changed  its  latitude  and  longitude,  and  even  its 
altitude,  as  it  moved  from  one  anchorage  to  an- 
other, and  as  the  strong  Inland  Sea  tides  ebbed  and 
flowed;  but  always  about  it  were  the  blue  waters 
and  the  green  islands,  and  always  across  it  blew 
the  clean  wholesome  breath  of  the  salt  sea.  On  a 
fine  spring  morning  when  the  sunshine  kissed  all 
the  waves  into  silver ;  when  the  island  slopes  were 
red  with  wild  azaleas,  and  the  uguisu  sang  among 
the  temple  groves,  who  could  ask  a  more  delightful 
home?  On  the  white  deck,  among  the  snug-coiled 
ropes,  romped  the  children,  coaxing  into  their 
games  the  indulgent  sailors,  as  these  went  smiling 
about  their  several  tasks;  and  in  the  little  white 
room  'tween-decks  the  Lady  of  the  Cabin  was  busy 
and  happy  with  her  housewifely  tasks.  But  on 
dark  stormy  days  and  wild  black  nights,  when  the 
gale  snored  through  the  rigging,  and  the  rain  drove 


198  CAPTAIN  BICI^L 

in  sheets  across  the  decks,  one  could  easily  imagine 
a  more  desirable  dwelling. 

But  be  the  weather  what  it  pleased,  the  little 
white  room  in  the  bosom  of  the  Little  White  Shij) 
was  the  heart  of  a  true  home,  a  Christian  home,  a 
home  of  mutual  confidence  and  love  and  helpful- 
ness, and  of  happiness  and  peace.  In  it  was  dupli- 
cated the  beautiful  home  life  which  the  parents  had 
known  in  their  own  childhood  in  Hamburg  and 
Norwich.  The  children  early  yielded  themselves 
to  its  wholesome  Christian  influences  and  took 
upon  them  the  name  of  Christ.  Such  homes, 
especially  such  missionary  homes,  are  nurseries  of 
missionaries,  and  it  is  not  surprising  to  hear  that 
Philip  may  succeed  his  father  in  the  captaincy  of 
the  Mission  Ship,  and  that  Evelyn  has  set  her 
heart  on  returning  to  Japan  to  serve  the  Master  in 
the  line  of  Christian  music. 

Of  the  influence  of  this  little  floating  home  upon 
the  Seven  Sailors,  upon  the  Shepherds  of  the  Isles 
as  they  from  time  to  time  became  its  guests,  and 
upon  the  Island  Folk,  swarming  out  in  their  gray 
unpainted  boats  to  visit  the  vessel,  mention  is  made 
elsewhere.  We  also  of  the  mainland  stations  who 
enjoyed  its  open-handed  hospitality  brought  away 
with  us  a  blessing.  That  reverence  and  chivalry 
toward  all  women,  that  kindness  and  tenderness 
toward  all  children,  which  marked  the  Captain's 
life,  gave  their  finest  glow  in  his  own  home,  and 
the  Captain's  Mate  added  the  sunshine  and  fra- 
grance of  womanly  gentleness  and  refinement,  of 
a  smiling  face,  of  wifely  and  motherly  devotion. 

The  good  comradeship  which  existed  between  the 
Captain  and  his  children,  and  his  constant  and 


THE  HOME  ON  THE  SHIP  199 

affectionate  tliouglit  of  them,  even  amid  his  en- 
grossing and  exhausting  duties,  are  seen  in  the 
letters  he  made  time  to  write  them  during  the  long 
separations  his  missionary  life  involved.  On  his 
birthday,  September  24,  1916,  he  says,  in  a  letter 
to  his  daughter  in  America : 

"  Mother  has  told  you  all  the  news,  no  doubt. 
That  is  the  way  Mothers  do !  Use  up  all  the  news 
and  then  '  rag '  Dad  for  not  writing  long  letters  to 
the  poor  dear  children,  who  are  weeping  out  their 
eye-teeth  because  their  cruel  Father  does  not  write ! 
I  was  reminded  the  other  day  that  I  had  not  written 
to  either  of  my  children  for  at  least  150  years  by 
the  clock,  and  that  I  ought  to  be  ashamed  to  call 
myself  a  missionary,  and  should  not  expect  to  go 
to  heaven.  So  you  see  I  have  turned  good  on  my 
birthday,  and  there  is  still  hope  for  me. 

"  I  wish  you  could  have  been  here  last  night,  and 
we  would  have  had  you  play  a  Wedding  March. 
As  it  was,  we  had  something  between  a  clog-dance 

and  a  dirge  on  the  bag-pipes.     M was  married 

and  O played.     Do  you  remember  how  you 

played  for  I ?    I  wish  sometimes  I  could  have 

you  on  the  ship  for  a  year  just  to  show  the  people 
what  real  music  is.  Some  of  them  Avould  appreci- 
ate it  now  much  more  than  they  did  when  you  were 
here." 

At  Christmas  of  the  same  year,  his  last  Christ- 
mas on  earth,  he  finds  time  amid  the  crowding  de- 
mands of  the  Island  Christmas  campaign  to  send 
the  season's  greetings  to  the  daughter  over-seas : 

"  Merry,  merry  Christmas  to  you,  and  many  of 
them !  No  doubt  you  will  have  a  full  day,  and  the 
fact  that  this  is  likely  to  be  so  is  a  real  comfort  to 


200  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

our  hearts.  My !  how  I  wish  you  were  here  to  give 
us  some  music  as  a  Christmas  treat !  If  you  come 
out  to  us  for  a  year  I  shall  plan  to  get  a  piano,  have 
it  taken  to  pieces  and  put  in  through  the  skylight 
and  then  put  together  again,  so  that  you  can  give 
us  plenty  of  music  while  you  are  here." 

Missionaries,  as  a  class,  are  the  most  optimistic 
and  the  best  contented  people  in  the  world.  They 
love  the  people  for  whom  they  labour.  They  have 
the  happiest  of  homes.  In  spite  of  the  long  separa- 
tions which  are  the  one  real  trial  of  missionary 
life,  they  have  comfort  and  joy  in  their  children, 
whether  about  the  family  board  or  over-seas  among 
strangers,  committed  to  the  keeping  of  God.  The 
little  white  home  in  the  heart  of  the  Little  White 
Ship  was  one  of  the  happiest  of  the  happy  mission- 
ary homes  of  Japan,  and  therefore  it  had  a  message 
of  hope  and  love  and  gladness  for  all  the  homes  in 
the  brown  villages  of  the  Inland  Sea. 


XVII 

A  NEW  ERA 

IN  the  years  of  grace  1899, 1900,  it  was  a  matter 
in  much  debate  among  persons  with  a  relish 
for  nice  questions  whether  the  vaunted  nine- 
teenth century  was  to  be  reckoned  to  the  close  of 
the  former  or  of  the  latter  year.  The  disputants 
on  either  side  brought  forward  weighty  arguments, 
each  in  favour  of  his  own  opinion.  No  personage 
of  world-wide  authority  arising  to  decide  the  con- 
troversy the  man  in  the  street  was  left  uncertain 
until  New  Year's  Day  1901  whether  he  was  in  the 
new  century  or  the  old. 

This  question  aroused  little  interest  in  the  minds 
of  the  people  of  Japan,  except  among  those  super- 
scholars  who  make  a  specialty  of  recondite  prob- 
lems of  foreign  extraction.  To  the  Mikado's  loyal 
subjects  generally,  '99  was  the  thirty-second  year 
of  Meiji,  and  '00  the  thirty-third  of  the  same.  For 
them  there  was  no  new  era  until  the  Emperor 
Mutsuhito  passed  unto  the  Regions  Beyond,  and 
his  son  Yoshihito  reigned  in  his  stead.  For  while 
the  educated  classes  are  familiar  with  the  western 
calendar  and  employ  it  on  occasion,  the  common 
people,  like  the  compilers  of  the  Chronicles  of  the 
Kings  of  Judah  and  Israel,  and  like  others  of  the 
ancients,  date  only  by  the  reigns  of  the  monarchs. 

201 


202  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

But  in  one  section  of  the  Empire  at  least  a  new 
era  began  with  the  winter  of  '99-00.  For  the 
Island  Folk  of  the  Inland  Sea  a  new  age  dawned 
when  the  Little  White  Ship  came  sailing  down 
their  narrow  waters.  Already  there  are  many  who 
recognize  this,  and  as  time  goes  by,  more  and  more 
will  events  be  dated  from  the  Coming  of  the  Vessel, 
as  the  Eomans  counted  their  years  from  the  Found- 
ing of  the  City.  Reckoning  in  the  Japanese  style 
this  is  the  twentieth  year  of  the  Era  of  the  Fukuin 
Maru,  One  might  say  that  for  all  that  little  Is- 
land world  it  is  20  A.  D.,  for  the  coming  of  the 
vessel  was  to  the  Islanders  verily  the  Coming  of 
Christ. 

"We  have  been  out  getting  acquainted,"  said 
Captain  Bickel,  after  completing  his  first  round  of 
the  Islands.  During  that  first  memorable  year  he 
had  not  merely  explored  his  appointed  parish  and 
familiarized  himself  with  the  moral  and  sj^iritual 
conditions  which  faced  him,  but  had  succeeded  in 
introducing  his  Mission  and  his  Message  to  myriads 
of  the  Island  people.  In  nine  out  of  ten  of  the 
hundreds  of  places  at  which  he  had  knocked,  his 
tact,  courtesy  and  kindness  had  won  admission, 
and  had  ensured  a  welcome  and  an  open  door  in 
the  future.  As  for  the  morose  and  withstanding 
tenth,  patience  and  perseverance,  prayer  and  pluck 
would  finally  conquer. 

The  way  of  the  pioneer  is  the  way  of  the  cross. 
To  become  the  Founder  of  a  ^New  Era  for  the  Island 
Folk  meant  travail  and  pain  of  body  and  soul.  Al- 
ready, in  the  second  year  of  the  Fukuin  Mam,  the 
tremendous  strain  which  the  work  entailed  was  be- 
ginning to  tell  seriously  upon  the  Captain's  health, 


A  NEW  EEA  203 

and  for  a  part  of  tlie  second  summer  the  Little 
■V\Tiite  Ship  lay  swinging  idly  at  her  anchor  under 
the  pine-fringed  hills  of  Banshu,  while  her  Skipper 
lay  moored  in  the  Sanatorium  at  Kobe,  undergoing 
repairs,  and  chafing  inwardly  at  this  unexpected 
interruption  of  his  plans.  This  ijroved  to  be  but 
the  first  of  several  such  serious  interruptions,  and 
the  beginning  of  a  long  period  of  almost  continuous 
weakness  and  suffering,  a  period  which  may  be  said, 
indeed,  to  have  ended  only  with  his  death.  The 
writer  was  deeply  pained,  during  his  third  visit  to 
the  ship,  in  the  summer  of  1902,  to  find  how  greatly 
the  Captain's  remarkable  bodily  vigour  had  been 
sapped  in  his  brief  period  of  service.  As  they 
tramped  some  mountain  path  to  a  distant  village, 
again  and  again  a  sudden  faintness  or  spasm  of 
pain  would  compel  him  to  rest  for  a  few  moments 
by  the  wayside.  But  when  the  pain  was  a  little 
assuaged,  or  the  faintness  had  passed,  he  was  on 
his  feet  again,  to  follow  that  mountain  trail  which 
was  to  him  the  path  of  duty.  Perhaps  the  most 
remarkable  feature  of  Cai3tain  BickePs  remarkable 
story,  and  certainly  the  most  touching  feature 
thereof,  was  the  sustained  triumph  of  the  ardour  of 
his  spirit  over  the  weakness  of  his  body.  Believ- 
ing that  God  had  chosen  him  to  bring  the  Gospel 
to  the  Islands,  he  brushed  aside  the  oft-reiDeated 
medical  advice  to  lay  down  the  work,  preferring 
rather  to  die  at  his  task  than  to  abandon  it.  "And 
with  shaking  body  and  clenched  teeth  he  kept  at  it, 
the  indomitable  spirit  driving  the  nerve-racked  and 
suffering  body  to  constant  exertion,  even  when  for 
months  his  sleep  did  not  average  two  hours  in  the 
twenty-four.^'     The  multiplied  labours  to  which  his 


204  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

conquering  soul  compelled  his  protesting  body  were 
more  than  enough  for  one  in  rude  and  ruddy  health, 
and  their  performance  by  one  who  was  practically 
an  invalid  borders  on  the  miraculous.  And  not 
less  wonderful  was  the  patience,  cheerfulness  and 
self-forgetfulness  which  almost  hid  his  suffering 
from  others,  even  from  those  nearest  to  him  in  his 
home  and  in  his  work.  The  heroic  element  in  the 
Captain's  great  Adventure  does  not  lie  so  much  in 
the  courage  with  which  he  faced  the  dangers  and 
hardships  of  the  Inland  Sea  work  and  the  suspicion 
and  hostility  of  the  Island  people,  as  in  the 
tenacity,  the  fortitude,  the  grit,  the  unflinching 
devotion  with  which  in  pain  and  weakness  he  con- 
tinued to  push  forward  his  enterprise.  Yes,  the 
New  Era  came  not  without  travail  and  sorrow. 
But  we  must  return  to  our  story. 

So  soon  as  he  could  persuade  the  doctors  at  the 
Sanatorium  to  release  him,  after  his  first  break- 
down, he  was  on  board  his  ship  again,  westward 
bound.  Everywhere  he  found  reasons  for  encour- 
agement. 

*'Said  one  Islander  to  another,  'Have  you  seen  the 
Jesus  ship  lately?'  *No,  but  I  hear  she  is  laid  up  in  a 
bay  on  the  Banshu  coast  because  the  long  foreign  priest 
is  ill. '  Yes,  and  so  it  was  then,  but  'tis  not  so  now,  for 
the  little  white  craft  has  spread  her  wings  since  then, 
and  gone  on  her  way  toward  the  sunset  where  the  islands 
lie  close  and  many,  to  tell  again  to  ever  wondering 
hearts  the  story  of  a  Saviour's  all-embracing  love.  And 
so  we  give  thanks  as  we  hear  the  lap,  lap  of  the  water 
at  her  side.  .  .  .  Instead  of  finding  the  vessel  and 
her  message  forgotten  by  the  thousands  in  the  islands 
now  revisited,  we  rejoiced  in  a  most  cordial  welcome 


A  NEW  EEA  '  205 

and  a  ready  hearing.  Many  prejudices  had  been  re- 
moved. Children  who  had  fled  from  the  foreigner  be- 
fore fled  no  more,  while  timid  women  who  had  stood 
aside  whispering  to  one  another  that  'foreigners  steal 
women  and  take  them  away,'  came  and  told,  with  a 
happy  laugh,  of  their  own  fears  now  gone.  Doors  once 
closed  were  opened  now,  and  of  all  those  opened  before 
not  one  has  as  yet  been  closed  upon  us. 

*'It  is  fortunate  for  us  that  a  Japanese  house  in  its 
holding  capacity  is  almost  illimitable.  Take  the  last 
island  visited.  Village  after  village  gave  us  its  most 
suitable  house.  Advertise  to  get  a  crowd?  No  need  of 
that,  the  Jesus  ship  has  come,  and  that  is  enough.  Come 
and  see.  The  house  fills  up  inside,  then  packs.  We  take 
out  the  outside  shutters  and  the  yard  fills  up.  'Tis 
but  the  same  old  story:  God,  man,  sin,  love,  Saviour. 
Which  God?  When?  Where?  Love,  what  has  that 
to  do  with  it  all?  Strange,  strange  story  for  ears  and 
hearts  that  have  lain  dead  so  long.  But  how  it  holds 
them !  Boy  and  girl,  young  man  and  maiden,  man  and 
woman  in  their  prime,  tottering  old  folk,  they  are  all 
there  listtning  and  wondering.  Oh,  could  we  but  give 
to  those  at  home  a  glimpse  of  such  a  sea  of  faces  as  we 
see  day  by  day  it  would  be  a  missionary  sermon  setting 
aflame  their  hearts  as  long  as  life  might  last.  But  once 
leam  to  read  those  faces,  and  what  a  tale  they  tell! 
Some  bear  a  sneer,  some  an  incredulous  smile,  some,  oh 
how  many!  are  an  incomprehending  blank,  the  impress 
of  generations  of  separation  of  man  from  God,  when 
man  lives  that  he  may  eat,  sleep,  and  eat  again  and  die. 
But  the  few,  the  few  that  have  that  look  of  deep  long- 
ing to  know  more  of  this  strange  religion  whose  motive 
power  is  an  incomprehensible  love,  what  about  them? 
They  are  few,  but  they  are  there,  and  if  we  but  wait  and 
work,  and  wait  again  and  pray,  the  light  will  dawn 
upon  their  hearts,  and  they,  poor  long-lost  wandering 
children,  will  return  to  their  Father.'* 


206  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

As  the  Captain's  acquaintance  witli  tlie  people 
became  more  intimate,  their  gross  superstition,  pro- 
found spiritual  ignorance  and  moral  need  lay  ever 
more  heavy  upon  his  soul,  and  at  the  same  time, 
with  each  circuit  of  the  sun,  new  tokens  of  the 
power  of  the  word  of  God  were  given  to  confirm  his 
faith. 

*'  'Where  are  the  good  folk  all  going  to-day?'  we 
asked  by  the  roadside  a  few  days  since.  'To  worship 
the  Eye-god  in  the  next  village  so  that  we  may  be  free 
from  eye-sickness.'  'To-day  is  the  Hill-god's  festival,' 
said  a  man  in  another  place;  'if  you  cut  down  trees  or 
work  over  there  in  the  quarry,  to-day,  you  will  suffer  all 
the  year.'  *Is  there  a  Sea-god?'  'Oh,  yes,  but  his 
feast  is  along  in  the  seventh  month.  You  can  tell  when 
it  is,  because  the  water  gets  clear.  He  has  a  clean-up 
do^vn  below  at  that  time.'  Day  after  day,  not  once, 
but  again  and  again,  we  meet  these  evidences  of  spiri- 
tual darkness,  not  to  mention  loathsome  things  of  which 
one  dare  not  speak,  but  which  make  the  heart  heavy. 

' '  Here  and  there,  in  island  after  island,  there  are  now 
to  be  found  those  who  show  a  truly  promising  interest, 
an  interest  that  seems  to  be  in  some  cases  the  beginning 
of  an  earnest  search  after  truth.  If  then  we  state  that 
these  signs  have  come  long  before  the  time  of  our  think- 
ing, that  while  truly,  deeply,  humbly  grateful,  we  are 
still  surprised,  it  is  because  we  live  amid  this  soul- 
depressing  darkness.  Not  that  it  touches  our  heart  to 
make  it  grow  faint  and  falter.  Nay,  never!  Not  so 
long  as  the  Master  is  near.  But  that  the  simple  daily 
effort  of  such  weak  hands  with  such  scant  means,  even 
though  made  in  His  name  with  much  prayer,  could  be 
blessed  to  bring  forth  so  soon  from  out  of  such  a  deadly 
dark  night  of  indifference,  superstition  and  ignorant 
fear,  so  rich  a  promise  for  the  future,  was  too  much  for 


A  NEW  ERA  207 

our  weak  faith  to  grasp.    But  'tis  well  so,  for  thus  the 
glory  will  be  all  to  God,  and  not  to  man.'' 

The  significance  of  the  New  Era  in  the  Inland 
Sea  is  not  to  be  found  chiefly  in  statistics  copied 
from  the  ship's  log  stating  the  numbers  of  those 
who  have  professed  the  Christian  religion,  or  of 
the  children  gathered  for  Christian  instruction,  or 
of  hearers  attending  the  village  meetings.  '^  Be- 
hold, I  make  all  things  new."  There  is  evident  the 
working  of  a  new  life.  There  is  a  breath  of  spring 
in  the  air.  A  new  light,  that  for  them  never  was 
before  on  land  or  sea,  has  broken  upon  the  Islands. 
In  the  hearts  and  on  the  faces  of  an  ever  increasing 
number  of  the  people  there  is  this  new  light  and 
life,  and  it  will  glow^  and  grow  till  it  has  trans- 
formed the  little  Island  world.  The  tide,  the  daw^n, 
and  the  growth  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  these  are 
three  things  which  no  man  can  stay. 

During  the  sixty  years  since  the  Gospel  began 
to  be  preached  and  lived  in  the  Sunrise  Kingdom, 
it  has  been  creating  a  New  Japan,  in  a  very  much 
deeper  sense  than  could  have  come  to  pass  through 
the  mere  impact  upon  the  East  of  w^estern  secular 
learning  and  culture,  a  much  more  vital  sense  than 
is  recognized  by  the  average  w^orld-tourist.  There 
has  been  coming  into  being  a  Japan  with  a  new 
outlook  on  life,  a  new  vision  of  God  and  the  human 
soul.  The  sanctity  of  home  and  marriage,  of 
motherhood  and  childhood;  the  value  of  the  indi- 
vidual; business  and  social  ethics,  stand  forth  in 
a  new  light.  Love,  joy,  peace,  are  new  words  to 
thousands  who  have  tasted  their  meaning  through 
an  experience  of  the  Gospel.     Eighteousness,  truth, 


208  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

altruism,  forgiveness,  compassion,  humility, — the 
meaning  and  practice  of  these  in  the  Christian 
sense  is  becoming  part  of  the  national  life.  As 
there  are  twice-born  men,  so  are  there  twice-born 
nations.  Japan's  New  Era,  her  Christian  Era,  be- 
gan in  1859,  with  the  coming  of  Christ  to  her  shores 
in  the  persons  of  His  apostles  Williams  and  Brown, 
Hepburn  and  Verbeck  and  their  companions.  The 
Makers  of  New  Japan  are  not  so  much  the  great 
statesmen  who  stood  about  the  Throne  in  the  days 
of  the  Restoration,  nor  the  eminent  journalists, 
scholars,  jurists  and  men  of  affairs  who  appeared 
upon  the  scene  as  if  by  magic,  although  their  in- 
fluence has  been  great  indeed  in  moulding  the 
nation,  as  the  quiet,  patient,  humble,  and  often 
despised  missionaries  and  native  Christian  leaders, 
who  have  been  the  hands  of  God  to  lay  the  touch  of 
the  Gospel  upon  the  people. 

And  what  has  taken  place  in  the  Empire  on  a 
large  scale  is  being  repeated  among  the  Island 
Folk.  It  would  be  impossible  for  any  one  who  has 
not  been  in  intimate  touch  with  the  Inland  Sea 
work  to  understand  or  imagine  how  very  vital  is 
the  transformation  that  is  in  progress.  One  must 
despair  of  adequately  describing  it  to  a  stranger. 
It  would  be  like  attempting  to  depict  for  one  who 
had  never  witnessed  a  sunrise  the  beauty  and  charm 
of  "  the  dawn  spread  upon  the  mountains."  It  is 
a  miracle,  a  new  creation,  a  vision  of  the  glory  of 
God. 

To  be  the  prophet  and  apostle  of  such  an  Era, 
the  "  Bringer  of  Morning  "  to  the  Inner  and  Outer 
Isles,  was  the  high  honour  and  privilege  to  which 
the  grace  of  God  elected  Captain  Bickel.    He  gave 


A  NEW  ERA  209 

himself,  utterly,  ungrudgingly,  joyfully,  to  the 
Island  Folk,  in  the  most  self-sacrificing  service,  and 
God  has  given  them  to  him  for  an  everlasting 
possession.  Blessed  are  the  Christian  pioneers, 
the  publishers  of  salvation,  the  "  Bringers  of 
Morning  "  to  peoples  who  sit  in  darkness,  for  they 
have  inherited  the  earth.  The  Pauls  and  Barna- 
bases,  the  Columbas  and  Patricks,  the  Careys  and 
Judsons,  the  Moffats  and  Livingstones,  the  Morri- 
sons and  Verbecks  and  Patons,  the  Grenfells  and 
Bickels,  such  are  the  nation-builders,  the  heritors 
of  the  lands  of  the  earth.  Like  Him  who  gave  a 
New  Era  to  all  the  earth,  they  shall  see  of  the 
travail  of  their  souls  and  be  satisfied. 

No  grave  holds  Christ.     'Twas  but  an  empty  tomb 
They  found,  who  on  that  first  glad  Easter  Morn 
Came  early  to  the  sepulchre.     Great  Death, 
Who  tliro'  uncounted  cycles  had  held  sway 
Unchecked,  unquestioned,  wide  as  earth  is  wide, 
Lay  smitten  of  a  stroke  incurable 
Beside  his  shattered  throne.     0  living  Christ! 
0  Fountain  and  Lord  of  life !  O  Death  of  death ! 
We  walk  thro'  death's  dark  valley  safe  with  Thee. 


F 


XVIII 

A  NEW  ''  FUKUIN  MARU  '' 

OR  thirteen  years  tlie  little  Mission  Vessel 
which  Shipwright  Cook  built  so  staunch 
and  strong  on  the  beach  at  Honmoku  sailed 
among  the  clustered  Islands  which  constituted  her 
Skipper's  parish.  At  the  close  of  those  thirteen 
years  she  was  still  strong  and  staunch,  "  from  truck 
to  keelson  and  from  keelshoe  to  shear  strake/'  fit 
to  weather  many  a  rude  gale.  For  her  Captain's 
sake,  and  for  her  work's  sake,  she  was  loved  in  hun- 
dreds of  Island  villages,  and  her  name  had  become 
a  household  word  in  ten  thousand  homes  beyond 
the  wide  sea.  To  many  an  one  among  the  Island 
Folk  she  had  brought  a  new  hope  and  a  new  life,  or 
at  least  a  human  love  and  sympathy  before  un- 
dreamed of,  and  a  glimpse  of  the  Divine  Heart 
from  which  all  love  and  sympathy  flow. 

But  the  very  success  of  the  work  for  which  she 
stood  made  it  imperative  to  replace  her  with  a 
larger  and  speedier  vessel.  The  disability  under 
which  she  had  laboured  from  having  been  built 
simply  as  a  sailing  craft  had,  as  we  have  seen,  been 
partly  removed  by  the  addition  of  the  motor  launch, 
and  still  further  overcome  by  the  fitting  in  of  the 
auxiliary  engines;  but  even  with  this  equipment 
she  could  not  overtake  the  rapidly  growing  work. 

210 


A  NEW  <*FTJKUIN  MAEU'^  211 

Captain  BickeFs  first  thought  was  to  lengthen  the 
ship  and  fit  her  with  larger  engines. 

In  April,  1911,  Captain  Bickel,  with  his  family, 
sailed  for  America  on  a  six  months'  furlough.  The 
Captain's  furloughs  were  always  busy  times,  and 
when  he  returned  to  the  field  in  the  autumn  it  was 
with  his  i)lans  matured  not  for  the  extension  of  the 
old  vessel  indeed,  but  for  the  building  of  her  suc- 
cessor, this  after  consultation  with  the  Home 
Board  having  been  decided  upon  as  the  wiser 
course,  and  the  generosity  of  friends  of  the  work 
at  home  having  made  it  possible.  Already,  before 
the  year  was  out,  the  materials  for  the  new  ship 
had  been  bought  and  preparations  were  making  for 
laying  her  keel,  and  in  the  spring  of  1913  she  was 
ready  for  launching. 

She  was  built  by  Japanese  wrights  at  the  Furuye 
Dock,  a  shipyard  on  Upper  Osaki  Island.  Captain 
Bickel  was  his  own  contractor  and  overseer.  If  to 
build  a  mission  residence  or  mission  school  in 
Japan  is  to  run  a  grave  risk  of  nervous  prostration, 
as  is  frequently  remarked,  how  unthinkable  a  task 
is  the  construction  of  a  ship,  where  everything  must 
be  fitted  and  joined  with  microscopic  exactness! 
But  the  Captain,  as  usual,  achieved  the  impossible ; 
and  in  June  of  1913  the  new  Fukuin  Maru  was 
afloat,  a  lively  craft,  with  the  vigour  of  youth  in 
her  bones,  and  with  ability  to  take  the  initiative, 
and  successfully  launched  herself  one  fine  day, 
when  no  one  was  expecting  it,  pretty  nearly  taking 
some  of  the  ship-carpenters  prematurely  down  to 
Davy  Jones'  locker. 

The  new  Fukuin  Maru  is  about  twice  the  size  of 
Jhe  earlier  vessel.     She  is  of  brigantine  rig,  length 


212  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

over  all  122  feet,  on  tlie  water-line  103  feet,  beam 
24.  Her  carrying  capacity  is  164  tons,  and  with 
engines  of  120  horse  j)ower,  burning  oil,  she  has  a 
speed  of  nine  knots  an  hour.  Her  lines  were  de- 
signed by  Mr.  Arthur  Binney,  of  Boston,  successor 
to  the  well-known  marine  arcliitect,  Burgess,  of 
the  same  city.  Between  decks  there  is  the  much 
needed  assembly  room,  to  accommodate  from  50  to 
100  persons,  and  the  additional  cabin  room  for 
evangelists. 

The  new  vessel  was  as  close  a  pattern  of  the  old 
Fukuin  Mam  as  was  possible  with  her  larger 
tonnage  and  different  rig.  There  were  the  same 
graceful  lines  of  the  white  hull,  the  same  airy  lift 
to  the  spars,  and  she  gave  one  that  same  impression 
of  simplicity,  order,  purity  and  dainty  beauty 
which  had  been  the  charm  of  the  earlier  vessel. 
As  she  came  sailing  down  the  wind  it  was  easy  to 
imagine  that  she  was  the  same  dear  old  Mission 
Ship  which  the  Islanders  had  learned  to  love,  only 
transformed  somehow  into  a  bigger  and  speedier 
vessel ;  and  the  loyalty  to  the  older  ship  was  trans- 
ferred spontaneously  to  her  successor.  She  car- 
ried on  the  name  and  tradition  of  The  Little  White 
Ship  without  so  much  as  a  jolt  to  the  Islanders' 
hearts. 

The  dedicatory  services  were  held  on  June  2nd, 
at  Setoda.  As  narrated  in  an  earlier  chapter, 
Setoda  had  been,  a  few  years  before,  stubbornly, 
bitterly  opposed  to  the  Fukuin  Maru  work.  Now 
that  work  had  there  many  of  its  stoutest  adherents 
and  warmest  friends,  and  the  town  had  become  the 
centre  of  the  Christian  activity  of  the  Inland  Sea. 
Here  Mr.  Ito,  the  pastor  of  the  Fukuin  Maru 


A  NEW  **FUKUm  MAEU'*  213 

Church,  the  leader  of  the  Shepherds  of  the  Isles, 
made  his  home.  The  new  vesseFs  maiden  voyage 
was  from  the  place  of  her  nativity  to  the  place  of 
her  dedication. 

*'DZA-NBI — ' Congratnlation  on  your  first  voyage.' 
So  read  the  two,  three  flag  hoists  of  the  International 
Code  over  Kone  Island  lighthouse  as  we  passed.  A  little 
farther  along  the  lone  believer  on  the  north  side  of  Omi 
Island  was  out  on  the  hillside  frantically  Avaving  a  flag 
tied  to  a  long  pole.  What  wonder  that,  as  the  boys  say, 
we  felt  *sort  of  queer  inside,'  for  were  there  not  thirteen 
years  of  toil  night  and  day  and  a  subtly  growing  in- 
fluence in  thousands  of  homes  behind  the  waving  of 
that  flag? 

*'The  new  ship  was  afloat  at  last.  The  long  process 
of  building  under  adverse  conditions  was  at  an  end. 
The  party  which  had  so  confidently  prophesied  the  com- 
plete failure  of  the  Christian  movement  in  the  Islands 
had  'lost  face.'  The  other  side,  the  believers,  the 
enquirers  and  sympathizers  held  up  their  heads  in  grate- 
ful pride,  for  they  knew  that  this  new  ship  meant  new 
life  and  much  of  it  to  the  cause  they  loved. 

*'The  Dedication  Service  was  held.  In  spite  of  the 
adverse  season  and  equally  adverse  day,  the  deck  was 
crowded  with  such  a  representative  body  of  people  as  we 
of  the  Little  White  Ship  delight  to  see.  Those  elements 
which  we  have  planned  and  worked  and  prayed  to  bring 
together  in  the  name  of  an  all-embracing  Saviour's  love 
during  these  years  were  there.  Rich  and  poor,  ill-clad 
and  well,  educated  and  uneducated,  folk  of  all  walks 
of  life,  they  were  all  there. 

^'Efficiency!  Yes,  the  vessel  means  greater  efficiency, 
but  not  only  that,  for  efficiency  sometimes,  yea,  too  often, 
has  no  heart-throb.  The  new  vessel  means  new  hope, 
new  courage  in  hundreds  of  w^eary  hearts;  sympathy, 


214  CAPTAIN  BICKBL 

consolation  to  hundreds  who  are  ill  and  sad;  timely 
warning  to  hundreds  on  the  verge  of  falling,  and  a  new 
awakening  of  hundreds  more  to  a  life  of  hope  and  joy 
hitherto  unknown. 

**  Through  thirteen  years  of  strenuous  effort,  Chris- 
tianity in  these  Islands  was  being  tested  in  the  eyes  of 
the  people.  The  new  ship  means  just  this,  that  it  has 
stood  the  test  and  has  become  a  recognized  institution  in 
the  Islands.  The  two  hundred  and  more  letters  of  con- 
gratulation sent  to  the  Dedication  Service  from  high 
and  low,  five  being  from  Governors  of  Provinces;  the 
forty-five  telegrams;  the  messages  since  received:  *Come 
to  our  town  and  our  town  and  our  town — first,' — all 
mean  this. 

' '  So  we  give  thanks  from  deeply  moved  hearts  for  this 
much  needed  equipment  and  go  forth  to  face  with  cour- 
age the  crowds,  the  thousands,  the  tens  of  thousands 
whom  we  see  already  coming  to  meet  us  with  a  new 
attitude.'' 


Yes,  we  looked  forward  confidently  to  many 
years  of  ever  widening  influence  and  ever  growing 
success  for  our  dear  Captain  and  the  beautiful 
white  ship,  dedicated  that  June  morning  to  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  uplifting  of  the  Island  people. 
But  His  ways  are  not  our  ways.  Yet,  in  the  divine 
goodness,  the  Captain  was  to  see  happy  days  not  a 
few  on  his  new  vessel. 

Immediately  on  the  conclusion  of  the  dedicatory 
services,  anchor  was  weighed  for  a  ten  months^ 
cruise  through  the  whole  Inland  Sea  field,  a  cruise 
which  covered  thirty-five  hundred  miles  actual 
sailing.  Having  thus  traversed  the  Inland  Sea  to 
its  westernmost  limit,  the  new  FiiJcuin  Maru  then 
nosed  her  way  out  through  the  shipping  in  the 


X 


^ 


x. 


in 


(A 


A  NEW  "FUKUIN  MARU"  215 

Straits  of  Shimonoseki  and  the  course  was  laid 
southwest  for  the  first  of  the  open  sea  island  groups 
which  the  Captain  had  so  long  carried  in  his  heart. 
Having  been  a  blue  water  sailor  in  the  old  sea- 
faring days  it  was  with  a  keen  delight  that  he  felt 
the  throb  of  the  Pacific  under  his  vessePs  keel. 
The  mighty,  untamed  ocean, 

^'The  deep,  unsearched,  mimeted  main,'' 

seemed  to  him  more  distinctly  a  part  of  God's  out- 
doors than  the  Inland  Sea,  with  its  restricted  out- 
look and  softer  beauty.  He  rejoiced,  too,  in  the 
rugged  grandeur  of  the  deep  sea  islands  which 
presently  loomed  up  across  the  waves,  and  in  the 
robust,  manly  character  of  the  people  whom  he 
found  dwelling  on  their  wild  shores. 

'  *  Of  special  interest  have  been  the  visits  of  the  vessel 
to  the  Iki,  Hirado  and  Goto  groups  of  islands  lying  out- 
side the  Inland  Sea  to  the  westward  of  the  coast  of 
Kyushu.  The  welcome  received,  the  general  interest 
shown  in  our  message,  the  promise  beyond  all  promises 
hitherto  in  other  islands  of  definite  results,  fully  repay 
the  serious  anxiety  and  often  dangerous  work  of  finding 
a  way  into  the  many  rock-bound,  shoal-strewn,  chartless 
harbours  without  a  pilot.  The  rugged  disposition  of  the 
people  which  seems  to  reflect  the  rugged  nature  of  those 
rock-ribbed  outposts  of  the  Japan  coast  gives  promise 
of  a  high  type  of  Christian  character,  when  once  the 
slow  process  of  leading  out  and  up  from  a  life  of  super- 
stition and  soul-destroying  custom  to  the  free  and  sunlit 
highlands  of  God's  love  shall  have  been  accomplished." 

While  the  Deep  Sea  Isles  thus  welcomed  the 
strange  vessel  and  her  foreign  Captain  with  a 
frank  hospitality,  everywhere  among  the  islands 


216  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

of  the  four  older  districts,  within  the  Seto-Nai-Kai, 
where  the  first  Fukuin  Maru  had  become  such  a 
familiar  sight,  her  successor  was  received  with  ac- 
claim; and  everywhere  the  Captain  noted  with 
thankful  heart  what  a  different  Island  world  was 
this  which  greeted  the  new  vessel  from  that  through 
which,  only  fourteen  years  before,  the  former  boat 
had  made  her  Voyage  of  Discovery.  This  maiden 
cruise  of  the  new  ship  was,  rather,  a  triumphal 
progress. 

''We  sailed  in  the  old  Fukuin  Maru,  with  the  purpose 
of  creating  in  every  community  touched  by  the  ship  a 
public  recognition  of  and  standing  for  Christianity. 
"We  sought  for  Christianity  public  acknowledgment  of 
its  right  to  be  there.  Religious  liberty  as  an  official  an- 
nouncement is  a  fine  thing.  We  thank  God  for  it. 
Practical  religious  liberty  in  a  community  of  centuries- 
old  hide-bound  clan  conditions  is  a  thing  to  be  fought 
for.     We  have  fought.     The  process  was  slow. 

*'We  sailed  in  the  new  ship  to  find  the  original  pur- 
pose of  the  old  vessel  largely  fulfilled.  'Christianity  in 
the  Islands  has  advanced  twenty  years  in  ten, '  some  one 
has  said.  This  is  no  play  of  words.  The  new  ship 
found  the  foundations  for  a  wide  work  laid  in  many 
places,  but  it  took  the  coming  of  the  new  ship  to  reveal 
this.  Hence  we  of  the  Little  White  Ship  returned  after 
a  ten  and  a  half  months'  cruise,  covering  thirty-five 
hundred  miles  of  most  intricate  channels,  with  hearts 
full  of  gratitude  to  God,  and  to  those  whose  generosity 
made  the  new  ship  possible.  So  great  indeed  were  the 
evidences  of  God's  mercy  and  guidance  during  these 
months  that  one  worker  broke  out  in  a  workers'  meeting 
with,  'It  is  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  over  again;  let  us 
thank  God!' 

"But  what  are  the  proofs  of  the  great  change?     They 


A  NEW  "FUKUIN  MAEU  "  217 

are  many.  Some  can  be  known  only  by  personal  con- 
tact. Others,  which  we  may  mention,  are:  The  wide 
and  open  welcome  and  recognition  given  to  the  coming 
of  the  new  ship  in  a  hundred  places,  especially  by  the 
so-called  upper  or  influential  class  to  whom  we  had 
resolutely  refused  to  pay  court  or  give  undue  attention 
during  all  these  years;  the  welcome  accorded  in  many 
places  by  the  local  press ;  the  respect  shovrn  by  the  gen- 
eral public  to  isolated  believers;  the  ability  of  the  be- 
lievers to  do  active  work,  every  one  in  his  or  her  own 
surroundings,  owing  to  the  new  attitude  of  the  people; 
also,  the  large  number  of  earnest  enquirers  rallying 
around  us  during  the  year,  there  being  several  hundred 
of  all  classes,  both  men  and  women,  spread  almost 
evenly  over  the  whole  wide  field.  These  conditions  have 
been  forcibly  brought  to  light  during  the  first  cruise 
of  the  new  vessel,  and  for  all  these  things  we  give 
thanks. ' ' 

Not  only  did  the  coming  of  the  new  mission  craft 
serve  to  crystallize  into  public  expression  the  cor- 
dial interest  in  the  Mission  and  Message  of  the 
foreign  captain  which  had  been  gradually  making 
a  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  it  also  gave  an 
immense  stimulus  to  the  whole  Island  work.  Ee- 
ferring  to  this  Captain  Bickel  continues : 

**  There  are,  however,  more  immediate  results  ap- 
parent from  the  going  forth  of  the  new  ship.  The  more 
rapid  movements  of  the  vessel  make  it  possible  to  keep 
in  close  touch  with  the  work  and  workers  in  the  several 
sections.  New  life,  power  and  courage  are  brought  to 
w^orkers  and  lonely  believers  by  the  more  frequent  large 
public  mxCetings  on  board  or  avshore  during  the  ship's 
visits  to  the  various  Island  groups.  The  plan  of  having 
a  special  room  on  board  for  the  pastor-general  and  his 


218  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

wife  has  resulted  in  a  new  sense  of  cliurch  responsibility 
throughout  the  widespread  Island  church  organization, 
and  a  sense  of  mutual  nearness  and  unity  of  purpose 
has  entered  the  hearts  of  the  widely  scattered  believers 
as  never  before.  Also,  the  meetings  for  believers  and 
enquirers,  the  communion  services  for  little  groups  of 
church  members,  the  social  gatherings  for  Christians, 
the  meetings  for  consultation  on  methods  of  work  with 
small  companies  of  Christians,  made  possible  by  the 
rapid  and  systematic  movements  of  the  new  vessel,  have 
resulted  in  an  almost  startling  desire  on  the  part  of  the 
isolated  believers  to  work  for  others.  These  efforts  for 
Christians  being  interwoven  with  the  larger  public  meet- 
ings reaching  tens  of  thousands  of  people  of  all  classes 
have  given  the  believers  a  happy  opportunity  to  help, 
and  to  test  their  powers.  Indeed,  the  work  of  the  Chris- 
tians alone  would  fill  a  volume  and  would  deeply  touch 
the  reader's  heart.  All  these  things  have  resulted  in  a 
closer  voluntary  organization  of  small  groups  of  be- 
lievers locally  for  worship,  consultation  and  work,  thus 
giving  a  healthy  church  life  in  many  places.  This 
promises  the  development  of  a  number  of  local  churches 
in  the  not  distant  future,  as  opposed  to  the  one  general 
church  organization  now  obtaining,  and  which  at  best 
is  a  temporary  expedient." 

The  varied  experiences,  nautical  and  otherwise, 
of  a  tfen  months'  thirty-five  hundred  miles'  cruise, 
were  a  good  test  of  the  seaworthy  qualities  of  the 
new  ship  and  of  her  adaptedness  to  the  work  for 
which  she  was  planned.  She  stood  the  test  well, 
and  the  Skipper  returned  from  his  cruise  delighted 
with  her.  As  a  master  shipwright  he  had  evi- 
dently made  good. 

*'The  vessel  itself,  both  as  a  vessel  and  as  a  mission 


A  NEW  ^^FUKUIN  MAEU  "  219 

plant,  goes  far  beyond  all  our  expectations.  Easy  to 
handle,  developing  a  speed  of  ten  miles  an  hour  under 
power,  good  under  sail,  good  in  a  sea  way,  neat  in  ap- 
pearance, propelled  at  the  same  cost  per  mile  as  the  old 
vessel  which  had  but  half  the  tonnage,  yet  with  double 
the  speed,  having  ample  deck  room  for  the  many  meet- 
ings held  on  board,  an  assembly  room  for  smaller  meet- 
ings, a  pastor's  room,  an  evangelist's  room, — she  is  in- 
deed a  floating  mission  station,  with  a  missionary  home 
included,  taken  systematically  from  village  to  village, 
from  town  to  tov/n.  Again  and  again,  in  place  after 
place,  as  the  hundreds  have  come  and  the  hundreds  have 
gone  until  they  have  become  thousands  upon  thousands, 
the  workers  have  exclaimed,  *  Thank  God  for  this  ef- 
ficient plant!' 

**A  new  Ship!  no!  new  life,  new  power,  it  is  that  has 
come  to  the  Islands  during  the  past  year. 

"  'But  it  is  after  all  only  a  ship, — keel,  keelson, 
frames,  beams,  planks,  bolts,  rigging  from  main  boom 
jumper  to  Dolphine  striker!'  Yes,  so  think  those  who 
do  not  know.  Those  "who  do  know  say  that  for  one  and 
a  half  million  people  spread  over  many  islands,  and  un- 
touched by  any  other  agency,  the  ship  is  not  a  ship,  but 
an  institution,  a  movement,  a  vital  force  expressing 
itself  in  many  ways  and  resulting  in  what  one  man 
called  a  spiritual  revolution.  The  vessel  is  to  those  one 
and  a  half  million  souls  not  merely  the  representative  of 
Christianity,  but  Christianity  itself.  As  those  who  sail 
in  her  speak,  teach,  act  and  live ;  as  her  representatives 
in  the  various  islands,  workers  and  Christians,  live  and 
speak;  so  the  tide  of  Christianity  in  these  Islands  ebbs 
and  flows." 

If  we  may  tMnk  of  the  dedication  of  the  first 
Fukuin  Mam  as  marking  the  beginning  of  a  'New 
Era  for  the  Island  world,  the  dedication  of  the 
second  Fukum  Maru  may  be  taken  as  setting  the 


220  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

date  of  a  new  period  in  that  Era.  But  many  in  the 
homeland  who  through  their  interest  in  the  Mission 
to  the  Ishmders  learned  to  love  the  first  little  vessel 
may  wish  to  know  her  subsequent  history.  Well, 
the  little  ship  herself,  the  visible,  tangible  con- 
struction of  wood  and  copper,  rope  and  canvas, 
still  doubtless  rated  high  at  Lloyds  as  a  good  ship 
and  trim,  but  with  some  name  less  sweet  than  that 
by  which  we  knew  her,  sails  among  the  islands  of 
the  mid-Pacific,  the  property  of  a  trader  to  the 
Southern  Main.  But  that  impalpable  spirit  which 
dwelt  in  her  as  the  Fukimi  Maru,  the  Ship  of  Glad 
Tidings,  has  departed  from  her,  and  has  entered 
into  the  newer  vessel — an  instance  of  the  trans- 
migration of  souls. 

The  mists  had  come  up  heavy  and  cold,  one 
August  evening,  over  the  little  priest-village  at  the 
summit  of  the  Usui  Pass,  above  Karuizawa,  and 
the  east  wind  was  moaning  through  the  tops  of  the 
sacred  trees,  of  immemorial  age,  which  stand  about 
the  tem]3le  enclosure.  In  the  deej)  shadows  under 
their  dripping  boughs  stood  the  good  people  of  the 
village,  gathered  as  for  some  festival.  Against  the 
rear  wall  of  the  temple  court  might  be  dimly  seen 
two  shrines  standing  side  by  side.  One  of  these 
was  in  an  advanced  state  of  dilapidation,  weather- 
worn and  weather-stained.  The  wild  mountain 
storms  of  many  years  had  beaten  upon  it.  The 
other  was  fresh  from  the  hands  of  the  builders ;  and 
how  dainty  and  simple  and  clean  a  new  Shinto 
shrine  can  be  one  must  visit  Japan  to  understand. 
Before  these  two  shrines  knelt  two  lines  of  priests, 
the  village-fathers,  in  all  the  bizarre  finery  of 
Shinto  ceremonial  robes.     Priests  and  people  were 


A  NEW  "FUKUIN  MAEU"  221 

there  to  hold  a  Dedication  Service,  as  we  should 
say,  or  rather  an  Installation  Service.  It  was  the 
"  Festival  of  Shifting  the  Spirit,"  a  sort  of  spiri- 
tual house-moving  which  occurs  whenever  an  old 
shrine  has  to  be  repaired  or  replaced.  Torches 
flared.  Drums  heat.  There  were  weird  strains  of 
primitive  music.  The  priests  presented  their  offer- 
ings according  to  the  ancient  Shinto  ritual.  At  the 
proi)er  psychological  moment  the  Spirit  dwelling 
in  the  old  shrine  was  entreated  and  encouraged  by 
soft  hissing  sounds  from  the  lips  of  the  wor- 
shippers, and  by  the  waving  of  the  sacred  golici 
wands,  to  graciously  deign  to  vacate  the  moulder- 
ing, storm-racked  shrine  which  had  so  long  been  his 
local  habitation,  and  to  take  up  his  august  abode 
in  the  new  and  finer  quarters  j)rovided  for  him  by 
Shinto  piety.  Thenceforth  the  old  shrine  was 
simply  an  empty  shell. 

In  the  case  of  the  two  FiiJcuin  Maru  there  was 
held  no  "Festival  of  Shifting  the  Spirit,"  unless 
one  may  think  of  the  Dedication  Service  of  the  new 
vessel  as  such;  but  in  some  mysterious  way  the 
soul,  the  life,  the  impalpable  essential  Spirit  of 
the  first  Mission  Vessel  has  departed  from  her  and 
now  dwells  in  her  successor.  When  the  new  Little 
White  Ship  comes  speeding  down  the  Island  chan- 
nels, "  sailing  across  the  shadows  of  many  shrines 
and  temples,  to  carry  light  to  those  who  sit  in 
darkness,"  it  is  just  the  old  Little  White  Ship  in  a 
difi'erent  dress,  as  every  one  of  the  simple-hearted 
Island  villagers  understands  perfectly  well. 


XIX 

THE  SHADOW  OF  WAR 

THE  Karuizawa  season  was  at  its  height. 
In  rustic  summer  cottages  nestling  at  the 
foot  of  Atago  and  Hanare,  dotting  the 
slopes  of  Kamagazawa,  and  scattered  out  over  the 
flowery  green  prairie  on  the  edge  of  which  the 
ancient  village  is  set,  were  domiciled  a  thousand 
foreigners,  chiefly  Britishers  and  Americans  but 
with  here  and  there  a  family  whose  household  talk 
was  in  German,  French,  or  some  other  of  the  lan- 
guages of  continental  Europe.  A  part  of  this  sum- 
mer population  was  composed  of  business  and  pro- 
fessional men  from  the  port  cities;  but  the  great 
majority  were  missionaries  and  their  families,  fled 
to  this  breezy  mountain  resort  from  the  deadly  heat 
of  the  Cities  of  the  Plain,  and  from  sultry  regions 
of  Korea,  China  and  the  Philippines;  for  Karui- 
zawa, high  up  on  the  central  mountain  mass  of 
mid-Japan,  under  the  shadow  of  big,  bluff,  broad- 
shouldered,  choleric  old  Asama,  is  the  missionary 
Mecca  of  east  Asia. 

Life  is  strenuous  at  Karuizawa,  except  to  some 
dear  wise  old  fathers  and  mothers  in  Israel  who 
are  content  to  rest  and  dream  and  pray,  and  re- 
fresh their  souls  with  the  beauty  of  God^s  outdoors. 
For  the  rest  of  us,  the  vacation  weeks  fly  so  swiftly, 
r  and  we  have  planned  to  crowd  so  much  into  them, 

222 


THE  SHADOW  OF  WAE  223 

that  we  must  play  liard  and  work  hard  and  make 
the  most  of  every  precious  day.  So  the  tennis 
courts  and  baseball  field  were  alive  with  players; 
excursion  parties,  lunch  baskets  on  arm,  were 
climbing  the  green  slopes  of  Piijimi,  or  winding 
down  the  romantic  glens  that  lead  to  Yokogawa; 
and  in  the  pine  woods  of  Kose,  on  the  windy  tops 
of  Sunset  Point  and  Prospect  Peak,  sat  little  groups 
of  picnickers,  light-hearted  as  the  birds. 

The  dingy  village  street  had  been  transformed 
into  one  continuous  bazaar,  where  the  alluring 
shops  of  silk  merchants  and  curio  dealers,  who  had 
flocked  here  from  distant  cities,  stood  cheek  by 
jowl  with  the  stalls  of  the  butcher,  the  baker,  and 
the  candlestick  maker, 

**And  with  buyers  and  with  sellers 
Was  humming  like  a  hive." 

Missionary  families  from  lonely  interior  stations 
were  doing  their  Christmas  shopping,  and  thrifty 
housewives  were  buying  their  next  day's  supply  of 
meat  and  vegetables. 

In  the  big,  plain,  unpainted  and  ungarnished 
auditorium,  the  centre  of  the  intellectual  and  re- 
ligious life  of  the  community,  something  was  going 
on.  There  was  always  something  going  on  at  the 
Auditorium, — sunrise  prayer  meetings,  forenoon 
lectures,  afternoon  Bible  studies;  mission  con- 
ferences, student  volunteer  conventions;  annual 
meetings  of  kindergartners,  rescue-workers ;  of  tem- 
perance, anti-tuberculosis  and  Sabbath-observance 
societies,  and  of  a  whole  list  of  other  worthy  or- 
ganizations. Yes,  life  was  bright  and  wholesome 
and  busy  up  on  that  green  roof  of  the  world. 


224  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

And  then,  sudden  and  startling  as  an  eruption 
of  Asama,  came  the  news  of  the  outbreak  of  the 
War.  The  bulletin-board  at  Social  Corner  became 
the  centre  of  attraction.  Britishers  read  with 
exultation,  and  Americans  with  admiring  sym- 
pathy, that  good  old  England  ^vould  stand  by  her 
pledges  to  Belgimn  and  her  friendship)  with  France, 
to  her  last  man  and  her  last  shilling.  Then  Japan 
herself,  Britain's  Asiatic  ally,  stepped  down  into 
the  arena,  unconscious,  as  the  sole  surviving  em- 
l)ire  of  Asia,  that  she  was  to  help  "  make  the  world 
safe  for  democracy." 

The  shadow  of  the  war  cloud  fell  across  all  the 
brightness  of  the  summer,  like  the  shadow  of 
Hanare  across  the  plain  when  the  sun  declines. 
Experts  in  apocalyptic  proj^hecy  found  in  Daniel 
and  the  Revelation  express  intimations  of  the  im- 
minent end  of  the  age.  Sons  of  British  mission- 
aries and  business  men,  more  modern-minded,  be- 
gan to  volunteer  for  service,  each  homeward-bound 
steamer  carrying  little  groups  of  ardent  patriots. 
But  the  iron  had  not  yet  entered  our  souls.  The 
Valley  of  Jehoshaphat  into  which  God  was  gather- 
ing the  nations  for  judgment  was  far  away.  After 
all,  it  was  but  the  penumbra  of  the  world  catas- 
trophe into  w^hich  our  summer  community  had 
entered.  The  tennis  courts  still  rang  with  shouts 
and  laughter,  albeit  not  quite  so  blithe  as  before, 
and  the  village  street  kept  up  its  roaring  trade. 
Over  in  the  Auditorium  we  took  it  more  seriously, 
and  many  were  the  prayers  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts 
for  His  guidance  and  mercy  upon  the  nations. 

It  was  a  grave  question,  too,  and  a  matter  for 
much  prayer,  how  the  missionary  cause  in  Japan 


THE  SHADOW  OF  WAR  225 

and  other  non-Cliristian  lands  would  be  affected  by 
the  spectacle  of  the  so-called  Christian  nations  of 
the  West  drawn  up  against  each  other  in  bloody 
conflict.     Would  not  the  Holy  ISTanie  whereby  we 
are   called   be   blasphemed   among   the   heathen? 
Happily,  in  the  goodness  of  God,  our  fears  were 
not  realized,  at  least  so  far  as  Japan  is  concerned. 
Here  and  there  was  raised  the  voice  of  some  zealous 
Buddhist,  or  some  truculent  atheist,  claiming  that 
Christianity  had  proved  itself  a  failure,  and  would 
presently  vanish  from  the  earth ;  but  these  voices 
found  no  echo  in  the  hearts  of  the  multitude.     To 
the  unthinking  it  was  enough  that  their  revered 
Emperor  had  entered  the  lists  on  the  side  of  the 
Allies,  and  that  the  soldier's  calling  had  always 
been  in  high  honour  in  Japan ;  while  the  thoughtful 
had  wisdom  to  "distinguish  things  that  differ" 
and  to  discern  between  Christianity  as  a  vital  force 
in  the  lives  of  sincere  believers  and  as  a  mere  veneer 
on  a  so-called  Christian  civilization.     Indeed,  the 
War  robbed  the  opponents  of  Christianity  of  one 
of  their  favourite  charges,  to  wit,  that  the  genius  of 
the  religion  of  Christ  is  incompatible  with  patriot- 
ism and  a  military  spirit,  and  would  prove  sub- 
versive of  Japanese  nationalism  and  loyalty.     At 
all  events  the  Christian  propaganda  suffered  no 
sensible  check.     The  great  nation-wide  three  years' 
evangelistic  campaign,  which  was  now  in  its  second 
year,  went  forward  with  unabated  enthusiasm  and 
success,  and  never  had  the  hearts  of  the  people 
seemed  more  responsive  to  the  Message  of  the 
Cross. 

What  was  true  of  the  mainland  was  not  less  true 
of  the  Islands.     A  war  between  nominally  Chris- 


226  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

tian  nations  was  no  stumbling-block  to  tlie  Island 
Folk.  The  war  bit  the  Inland  Sea  Mission  hard, 
nevertheless.  The  new  Fukuin  Maru,  dedicated  in 
June,  1913,  had  i^roved  efficient  beyond  her  Cap- 
taints  most  sanguine  expectations.  During  her 
cruise  of  thirty-five  hundred  miles  among  the 
Islands  of  the  Inner  and  Outer  Seas  she  had  every- 
where been  accorded  a  welcome  beyond  what  had 
been  hojied  for,  and  the  summer  of  1914  found  the 
w^hole  Island  field  in  a  most  encouraging  condition, 
and  the  Captain  full  of  plans  for  the  more  intensive 
work  and  the  more  extensive  work  which  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  new  vessel  made  possible.  And  then 
came  the  War.  It  i^  a  far  cry  from  the  Wilhelm- 
strasse  in  Berlin  to  the  blue  lanes  of  the  Inland 
Sea,  but  when  Emperor  William  drew  his  sword 
from  its  scabbard  and  held  it  aloft  as  a  challenge 
to  the  nations,  its  shadow  fell  even  athwart  these 
lonely  islands. 

The  Russo-Japanese  war,  for  some  reason,  had 
not  interfered  with  the  activities  of  the  Mission 
Ship,  but  this  great  world  conflict  was  fraught  with 
more  insidious  dangers  and  called  for  stricter  pre- 
cautions. The  Japanese  Government  felt  obliged, 
as  a  measure  of  safety,  to  cancel  all  permits  for 
boats  flying  foreign  flags,  whether  the  pleasure 
yachts  of  the  foreigners  in  the  port  cities,  or  the 
larger  craft  built  for  more  serious  purposes,  to  call 
at  any  place  in  the  Inland  Sea  or  on  the  coast  of 
Japan  other  than  the  open  ports.  This  of  course 
tied  up  the  Fukuin  Maru^  for  the  authorities,  how- 
ever kindly  disposed  to  her  Captain  and  her  flag, 
hardly  felt  at  liberty  to  make  an  exception  in  her 
favour.     So  when  the  Mission  Vessel  came  gaily 


THE  SHADOW  OF  WAE  227 

sailing  back  from  the  far-off  Gotos,  in  ]^;rovember, 
1914,  at  the  end  of  an  adventurous  and  prosperous 
cruise,  it  was  to  be  met  by  a  government  order  to 
tie  up  until  further  notice. 

The  Captain  might  have  avoided  the  difiiculty  by 
hauling  down  "  Old  Glory "  and  running  up  the 
Japanese  flag  in  its  place,  for  the  ship  has  a  Jap- 
anese as  well  as  an  American  registry,  and  the  Cap- 
tain had  passed  the  Japanese  naval  court  examina- 
tions. The  authorities,  however,  dissuaded  him 
from  taking  this  course,  representing  to  him  that 
as  an  American  vessel  under  the  American  flag  she 
v^\^s  a  distinct  factor  in  the  promotion  of  good-will 
between  Japan  and  the  United  States,  and  thereby 
encouraging  him  to  hope  that  the  interdict  on  the 
vessel's  movements  would  be  lifted  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment. 

So  the  Gospel  Ship  was  steered  into  the  snug 
sheltered  haven  of  Miya-no-Ura,  a  short  run  from 
the  mission  headquarters  at  Setoda,  and  there 
moored  in  the  shadow  of  the  pine-clad  bluffs.  The 
Christmas  season  came,  and  great  was  the  dis- 
appointm.ent  of  the  thirty-five  hundred  Sunday- 
school  children,  and  of  many  children  of  larger 
growth,  when  the  beautiful  American  ship  and  her 
much  loved  Captain,  with  all  the  lanterns  and  flags, 
pictures  and  gifts  which  were  to  be  part  of  the 
Christmas  cheer,  failed  to  come  to  them.  The 
winter  passed,  and  the  summer,  and  Christmas 
came  again,  and  yet  no  glimpse  of  the  FuJcum  Maru, 
which  lay  gathering  barnacles  in  her  snug  retreat 
in  Miya-no-Ura. 

Her  Captain,  however,  gathered  no  barnacles, 
but  made  this  period  of  enforced  waiting  one  of 


228  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

tlie  most  profitable  in  the  history  of  the  mission. 
Some  sentences  from  his  reports  for  the  year  show 
how  well  the  time  was  improved : 

*  *  The  hit  of  hits  has  been  the  detention  of  the  ship  by 
the  authorities  as  a  direct  war  measure;  not  the  deten- 
tion of  the  Fukuin  Maru  as  a  mission  ship,  but  the  de- 
tention of  ail  vessels  on  the  coast  flying  any  and  every 
foreign  flag,  as  a  precautionary  measure  at  a  time  when, 
as  one  ofiieial  said,  *The  whole  world  is  on  fire  and  mad 
with  war.'  The  delay  in  the  direct  prosecution  of  the 
work  in  the  Islands  has  been  a  sore  trial,  yet  there  is 
coming  to  us  a  dawning  light  as  to  the  place  it  may 
have  in  God's  plan,  which  v/e  are  sure  is  perfect.* 

**To  be  held  up  is  not  pleasant.  To  stop  to  think  is 
sometimes  wholesome.  The  Fukuin  Maru  has  had  to 
stop  owing  to  the  war,  but  we  are  as  busy  as  ever,  only 
in  a  different  way.  Tlie  temporary  suspension  of  direct 
activities  with  and  from  the  ship  is  a  dire  disappoint- 
ment. There  are,  however,  compensations.  It  has 
forced  us  to  stop  and  think.  As  we  have  thought  we 
have  seen.  As  we  have  seen  we  have  thanked  God.  As 
we  have  thanked  Him  we  have  gone  vigorously  to  work 
to  make  new  plans  and  prepare  new  material  for  a 
fresh  and  more  intelligent  attack  when  the  ship  is  once 
more  free. 

*' Special  time  has  been  found  to  plan  for  and  help 
to  carry  into  being  a  stronger,  clearer  church  life,  and 
expression  of  that  life  in  methods  of  church  organiza- 
tion and  church  work  in  the  Islands.  The  results  have 
been  gratifying.  Again,  we  have  had  time  for  an  ex- 
amination and  study  of  conditions  of  Island  life,  or 
rather  for  an  assimilation  of  the  impressions  and  facts 
received  from  contact  with  many  thousands  of  Island 
homes,  and  many  tens  of  thousands  of  Island  people, 
and  bringing  these  results  to  bear  on  the  problems 


THE  SHADOW  OP  WAE  229 

likely  to  confront  tlie  young  Island  church  in  the  near 
future/  ■ 

''This  hindrance  has  given  time  for  things  long 
planned  for.  Among  these  were  the  systematizing,  re- 
writing, and  reissuing  of  Sunday-school  lesson  helps; 
the  developing  of  plans  for  conserving  the  results  of 
sixty-two  Sunday  schools  by  forming  a  society  along 
Christian  Endeavour  lines,  and  the  inaugurating  of  a 
self-supporting  industrial  work  to  stem  some  of  the  tide 
of  young  girls  setting  toward  the  cities  of  the  mainland 
and  ruin. 

"The  drift  of  young  girls  to  the  cities  of  the  main- 
land and  consequent  ruin  has  lain  on  our  hearts  for 
years.  At  last  we  have  thrown  prudence  to  the  winds 
and  attempted  something  for  these  girls.  Yes,  we  have 
started  industrial  work,  not  to  catch  people,— we  don't 
have  to,— but  to  save  them  from  parents  and  relatives 
after  they  are  under  our  influence.  But  our  great  pur- 
pose is  to  make  a  public  protest  against  existing  social 
and  industrial  conditions,  and  give  an  example  of  better 
things.  We  have  begun  without  a  cent  of  capital, 
hoping  to  make  the  work  self-supporting.  Battenburg 
lace  and  drawn  work,  directly  undertaken  with  the  girls 
under  our  immediate  care,  some  in  a  dormitory,  some 
in  their  parents'  homes,  is  one  feature.  Another,  towel 
making,  through  five  already  existing  small  local  plants, 
gives  employment  to,  say,  sixty  girls  under  Christian 
influence.  • 

''Leakage  is  a  serious  thing,  be  it  in  a  ship  or  in  a 
church.  In  the  Island  church  organization,  in  spite  of 
a  membership  distributed  in  sixty-seven  places,  there  is 
no  leakage.  Every  member  is  in  touch  with  the  church 
and  the  church  with  him  or  her.  This  happy  condition 
has  resulted  in  a  strong  desire  to  conserve  results  all 
around,— the  results  of  the  sixty-two  Sunday  schools, 
of  the  general  evangelism,  of  the  newspaper  and  litera- 
ture work,   of  the  industrial  work,   and  of  the  long 


230  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

enquirers'  list  of  several  hundred  names.  To  this  end 
a  society  has  been  formed  along  Christian  Endeavour 
lines,  called  the  Light  Seeking  Society,  which  is  affiliated 
with  the  National  Christian  Endeavour  Society,  the  Na- 
tional Temperance  Society,  etc.,  etc.  The  Christians 
will  plan  their  efforts,  especially  for  young  people, 
through  this  society.  Scholars  of  long  standing  who 
are  leaving  the  Sunday  school  to  go  out  into  life  are 
recommended  by  the  ship's  workers  to  this  society  as 
associate  members.  Special  meetings  are  held  by  the 
Christians  for  these  groups  of  young  people  and  also 
for  enquirers." 

Captain  Bickel's  personal  liberty  was  not  inter- 
fered with.  He  was  plainly  told  that  he  might  go 
wherever  he  pleased,  but  with  the  Inland  Sea 
waters  charted  in  his  head  and  with  his  intimate 
acquaintance  with  its  fortified  zones,  and  having 
enjoyed  the  unfailing  confidence  of  the  authorities, 
he  thought  best  to  avoid  everything  that  might 
cause  the  government  suspicion  or  annoyance,  and 
declined  to  accept  this  privilege.  He  therefore  re- 
mained on  his  ship  except  when  important  mission 
business  called  him  to  Tokyo,  and  then  punctili- 
ously reported  his  movements  to  the  proper  authori- 
ties. 

On  these  journeys  he  was  amused,  possibly  some- 
times gently  annoyed,  to  find  himself  under  strict 
surveillance,  in  spite  of  the  confidence  expressed 
in  him  by  the  higher  authorities.  His  German 
name,  the  fact  that  his  home  was  in  Germany,  and 
that  he  had  been  in  regular  communication  with 
persons  in  that  country,  naturally  aroused  sus- 
picion in  the  minds  of  over  zealous  spy-hunters. 
After  all,  was  not  this  inexi)licable  Inland  Sea 


THE  SHADOW  OF  WAR  231 

Mission — Fukuin  MarUy  American  flag  and  all — 
luerely  a  blind,  a  camouflage?  In  otlier  parts  of 
the  world  German  officers  had  posed  as  mission- 
aries, as  in  the  well  authenticated  case  of  a  certain 
member  of  a  Mission  from  the  Fatherland,  carry- 
ing on  evangelistic  work  in  Asiatic  Turkey,  who 
when  the  War  broke  out  "  proved  to  be  a  German 
captain  of  artillery,  and  he  it  was  who  trained  the 
guns  upon  the  American  mission,  destroying  the 
property  where  countless  times  he  had  been  enter- 
tained as  guest."  But  our  Captain  Bickel,  in  si^ite 
of  his  German  name  and  German  ancestry,  was  an 
American  and  a  democrat  of  the  second  generation, 
and  like  all  true  Americans,  and  all  true  democrats 
of  every  nation,  not  to  say  all  true  Christians,  hated 
war  to  the  marrow  of  his  bones.  He  could  not  even 
bear  to  see  a  military  toy  in  the  hands  of  his  chil- 
dren. To  hear  of  his  being  shadowed  as  a  possible 
German  spy,  a  political  enemy  of  Great  Japan,  was 
something  to  add  to  the  gaiety  of  missionaries ! 

Meanwhile,  the  Little  White  Ship  continued  to 
accumulate  seaweed  and  barnacles  at  Miya-no-Ura, 
and  her  friends  in  four  hundred  and  fifty  villages 
looked  in  vain  up  the  blue  lanes  for  the  gleam  of 
her  sails.  There  were  so  many  who  needed  her  and 
her  Captain,  needed  the  comfort  and  the  counsel 
he  would  bring!  They  had  been  saving  up  their 
sorrows  and  their  problems  against  his  coming. 
Doubtless  there  were  many  among  the  Islanders 
who  added  their  prayers  to  the  Captain's  for  the 
ship's  speedy  release. 

The  Captain  added  effort  to  his  prayer,  and  in 
April,  1916,  had  the  great  joy  of  seeing  his  little 
ship  at  sea  again  with  unforeseen  blessings  in  her 


232  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

wake.  "  Tlie  negotiations  resulting  in  the  release 
of  the  ship  after  one  year  and  four  months  of 
detention,  though  demanding  tact  and  patience,  re- 
sulted also  in  much  that  will,  we  believe,  prove 
beneficial  to  the  interests  of  Christian  work  in  the 
islands  not  only,  but  to  Christian  efforts  every- 
Y/here.  The  interest  aroused  in  the  Japanese 
Federation  of  Churches,  and  among  Japanese 
Christian  leaders,  as  to  the  question  of  our  release, 
is  one  asset.  The  direct  thought  given  by  high 
ofO-cials  to  Christian  activities  for  the  uplift  of  the 
people  in  a  large  section  of  this  land,  as  represented 
by  the  Fukuin  MarUy  is  another,  and  must  lead  to 
a  better  understanding  of  Christian  motives." 

So,  while  the  Great  War  went  on,  and  the  war 
cloud  grew  ever  blacker  above  the  nations,  its 
shadow  lifted  from  the  Little  White  Ship,  mes- 
senger of  the  Gospel  of  Peace.  Save  only  the  Kura- 
hashi  District,  which  was  of  strategic  naval  im- 
portance, she  had  the  freedom  again  of  all  the 
Island  world.  As  she  sped  forth  afresh  on  her 
mission  of  mercy  the  Captain  walked  her  bridge 
glad  and  thankful  to  be  once  more,  in  this  active 
way,  about  the  business  of  the  Kingdom.  Never 
had  the  vessel  received  so  warm  a  welcome  as  now 
awaited  her,  and  never  had  the  condition  of  the 
work  in  the  wide  Island  parish  been  so  satisfactory 
and  promising.  On  the  farther  side  of  the  world 
rose  the  clamour  of  war  and  the  bitter  music  of 
Hymns  of  Hate,  but  to  the  Island  villagers  there 
spake  again  the  still  small  voice  of  the  message  of 
love  and  peace  which  by  and  by,  please  God,  shall 
cause  wars  to  cease  unto  the  end  of  the  earth. 


XX 

SOME  ISLAND  STORIES 

DURIKG  tlie  nearly  a  score  of  years  Captain 
Bickel  sailed  his  Little  White  Ship  among 
the  Inner  and  Outer  Islands,  there  have 
occurred  in  connection  with  the  work  of  the  vessel 
many  incidents  worthy  of  permanent  record.  Some 
of  these  are  narrated  in  the  Cap  taints  annual  or 
occasional  rex)orts,  but  a  larger  number  were 
stored  in  his  memory,  to  enliven  his  conversation 
as  one  sat  with  him  over  the  rudder,  on  the  main- 
rail,  or  paced  with  him  the  spotless  deck  of  the 
Gospel  Yacht.  Some  of  these  incidents  are  amus- 
ing, many  are  pathetic.  Some  set  forth  the  per- 
versity of  man,  some  the  goodness  of  God,  some  the 
marvellous  sufficiency  of  the  Gospel  to  meet  the 
needs  of  all  classes  and  conditions  of  human  beings. 
Told  in  the  Captain's  inimitable  way,  surely  never 
were  sailors'  yarns  more  interesting  than  these 
little  true  tales  of  the  Sea  and  the  Islands.  A  few 
of  these  incidents,  told  where  possible  in  the  Cap- 
tain's own  words,  are  gathered  into  this  and  the 
following  chapter.  They  may  at  least  serve  to 
make  our  log  of  the  FuTcuin  Maru  more  of  a  "  hu- 
man document." 

"  Old  Pilgrim's  Progress  " 
In  the  city  of  Osaka,  a  few  years  ago,  lived  an 

233 


234  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

old  rickshaw  puller,  Ode  by  name,  who  had  drifted 
up  there  from  his  native  island  in  the  Inland  Sea, 
on  the  quest  for  rice,  no  doubt.  Some  of  the  many 
thousands  of  rickshaw  men  are  of  good  family  and 
education,  with  refined  features  and  manners, 
brought  to  this  menial  occupation  by  misfortune  or 
dissipation.  Ode,  however,  was  just  a  plain  rough 
uneducated  coolie.  When  sixtj^-seven  years  of  age 
he  came  under  the  influence  of  the  Gosx^el,  was  con- 
verted, and  at  once  gave  himself,  such  as  he  was,  to 
the  service  of  his  newly  found  Lord  and  Saviour. 
Then  he  remembered  his  heathen  neighbours  on  the 
island  where  he  had  been  born.  "  They  have  never 
heard  of  Jesus,'^  he  said  in  his  heart.  "  I  will  go 
down  and  tell  them  how  He  has  saved  me."  So  he 
sewed  a  Ked  Cross  on  his  hat  as  a  symbol  of  his 
new  faith,  and  started  for  his  old  island  home. 

Meanwhile  the  Mission  Shij)  had  begun  to  cruise 
in  the  Inland  Sea,  and  Captain  Bickel  had  obtained 
a  footing  on  a  number  of  the  Islands.  On  one  of 
these,  especially,  the  leading  people,  such  as  the 
mayor  of  the  principal  town,  the  superintendent  of 
police,  and  other  persons  of  position,  had  shown 
themselves  very  friendly,  and  had  even  aided  the 
ship's  workers  to  secure  a  very  desirable  building 
for  their  meetings.  But  the  work  there,  so  far,  had 
borne  no  spiritual  fruit.  There  were  no  conver- 
sions. 

One  day,  when  the  vessel  lay  off  the  island,  the 
Captain  came  ashore  and  paid  a  visit  to  one  of  the 
ofQ.cials  at  his  home. 

'*He  was  a  self-complacent,  self-satisfied  individual, 
very  glad  to  meet  the  interesting  foreigner  and  enjoy 


SOME  ISLAND  STOEIES  235 

his  friendship,  but  with  not  the  slightest  idea  of  be- 
coming a  Christian.  He  stood  at  the  door  and  laugh- 
ingly welcomed  the  Captain  with  the  words:  *What  do 
I  hear,  opposition  in  the  town?'  *How  so?'  asked  the 
Captain.  'Oh,  an  old  fellow  has  come  in  here  and  says 
he  is  going  to  start  a  church ! '  answered  his  genial  friend, 
laughing  again.  'Well,'  said  the  Captain  seriously,  'if 
he  is  a  Christian,  he  is  my  brother  and  I  must  go  to  see 
him.'  'Oh,  no,'  was  the  reply,  'quite  unnecessary;  he 
doesn't  amount  to  anything;  just  an  ignorant  old  rick- 
shaw coolie  from  Osaka,  named  Ode.  You  needn't  pay 
the  slightest  attention  to  him.'  'Well,'  reiterated  the 
Captain,  'if  he  is  a  Christian  he  is  my  brother,  and  I 
must  go  and  see  him.'    And  taking  Pastor  Ito  he  went. 

"In  a  back  street,  in  a  mean  little  house,  he  found 
Ode.  Sure  enough,  he  was  only  an  ignorant  rickshaw 
coolie,  but  he  had  now  returned  to  found  the  Church  of 
Christ  on  his  native  island.  He  was  obsessed  with  this 
purpose.  He  could  not  write,  and  could  read  onlj^  the 
simplest  characters  with  the  greatest  difficulty,  and  yet 
he  had  a  Bible  which  he  was  slowly  spelling  out.  His 
speech  was  thick  and  indistinct,  so  that  he  could  hardly 
be  understood;  in  fact,  he  seemed  to  have  no  attractive 
qualities. 

"Ode  was  very  much  disappointed  to  hear  that  Cap- 
tain Bickel  had  reached  the  town  before  him,  and  Cap- 
tain Bickcl  was  surely  disappointed  to  fxud  Ode  the  first 
representative  of  Christianity  in  this  town.  But  after 
consultation,  both  the  Captain  and  Pastor  Ito  deter- 
mined that  they  must  recognize  Ode  as  a  Christian,  for 
he  seemed  by  his  conversation  to  be  a  thoroughly  con- 
verted man;  and  furthermore  they  felt  that  they  must 
leave  him  at  least  to  begin  his  work  in  this  to^vn,  his 
native  place,  although  they  were  sure  that  all  these  high 
class  friends  of  theirs  would  be  offended,  and  that  the 
work  in  this  particular  place  would  be  set  back  four 
or  five  years  by  this  strange  incident  or  accident. 


236  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

*' About  three  months  after  this  the  Captain  received 
a  postal  card  scrawled  in  the  rudest  characters.  All  it 
said  was  *Come,  preach.  Ode.'  With  great  misgivings 
the  Captain  and  Pastor  Ito  went.  They  found  the 
avenue  leading  up  to  the  church  lined  with  people  of  all 
sorts,  from  the  richest  to  the  poorest,  while  an  audience 
of  four  hundred  overflowed  the  building.  'Where  did 
they  come  from,  Ode  San?'  asked  the  Captain.  'Don't 
know/  mumbled  the  old  man.  'What  are  they  here 
for?'  'To  hear  you  preach.'  'How  did  you  get  them 
here?'  'Don't  know,'  said  the  incomprehensible  Ode. 
So  the  Captain  preached. 

"Dining  with  his  old  friends  he  found  out  how  Ode 
had  done  it.  (Ode  never  told.)  Very  humbly  Ode  had 
gone  to  the  head-teacher's  door  with  a  New  Testament 
which  he  had  bought  out  of  his  slender  means.  As  it 
seemed  to  him  befitting,  he  had  come  to  the  back  door, 
and,  although  the  servants  tried  to  drive  the  poor  old 
man  away,  he  insisted  in  his  meek,  deprecatory  manner 
on  seeing  the  teacher.  When  the  teacher  appeared.  Ode 
asked  if  he  might  give  him  the  New  Testament.  'Why 
should  I  want  it?'  asked  the  teacher.  'It  makes  the 
heart  good,'  said  Ode.  'But  I  am  good  enough  now,' 
was  the  reply.  'Go  over  there,'  he  said,  pointing  to 
the  slum  district;  'the  hearts  of  those  people  are  bad; 
give  them  your  book;'  and  he  made  a  gesture  of  dis- 
missal. The  old  man  looked  at  him  earnestly  and  said 
solemnly,  'Teacher,  you  are  making  an  awful  mistake; 
even  if  you  will  not  see  Christ  in  the  book,  you  may  see 
Him  in  me.'  This  very  remarkable  and  very  humbly 
spoken  protest  and  appeal  greatly  impressed  the  teacher, 
and  he  took  the  book  and  read  it. 

"Again,  Ode  heard  that  a  fellow-townsman  was  sick 
and  called  at  the  house.  The  wife  came  to  the  back  door 
to  see  the  old  man.  He  said,  'I  have  come  to  help.  I 
hear  your  husband  is  sick.'  'But  you  don't  know  my 
husband,'  said  the  astonished  woman,  'and  you  are  no 


'Old  Pilgrim's  Progress" 


SOME  ISLAND  STORIES  237 

relative  of  ours.  Why  do  you  wish  to  help?'  'Your 
husband  is  my  brother/  replied  Ode.  Thinking  him  a 
harmless  old  crank,  she  said,  *Well,  what  can  you  do? 
You  can't  nurse  a  sick  person.'  *0h,  no,'  said  Ode,  *I 
can't  do  that,  but  I  can  do  anytliing  else — chop  the 
wood,  bring  the  water. '  She  let  him  do  it,  as  it  seemed 
to  please  him  so  much,  all  the  time  her  husband  was 
sick.  Thus  he  sought  out  every  sick  'brother'  in  the 
city  and  helped  with  wood  and  water,  and  preached  very 
simply  to  everybody  he  met.  By  and  by  he  got  the 
idea  of  having  a  preaching  service  and  sent  Captain 
Bickel  the  postal  card,  and  that  was  all  there  was  to  it. 
''From  that  time  to  this  (1916)  this  poor  old  man 
has  preached  unceasingly.  On  three  islands  of  22,000, 
8,000  and  20,000  he  has  preached  the  Gospel  in  every 
house  and  has  now  preached  to  8,000  on  a  fourth  island. 
So  this  man  with  absolute  fearlessness  and  holy  per- 
sistency has  preached  to  58,000  people,  although  he  was 
not  converted  until  his  sixty-seventh  year  and  had  had 
practically  no  education." 

As  the  above  fragment  of  Ode's  story  shows,  his 
ministry  has  been  one  of  deeds  rather  than  of  words. 
"  Sacrificial  service  was  the  dominant  motive  in  his 
life,"  writes  Captain  Bickel.  ^^He  sought  oppor- 
tunities to  serve  the  sick,  the  aged  and  the  poor, 
though  he  had  nothing  to  offer  except  the  love  of 
his  heart  and  the  labour  of  his  empty  wrinkled 
hands.  His  only  explanation  was,  ^  It  is  just  to 
prove  my  love.'  Though  the  unfortunate  man 
might  be  a  stranger.  Ode  San  always  insisted,  *  But 
he  is  my  brother.'  " 

Thus  he  went  about  doing  good  in  all  manner  of 
simple  and  humble  ways,  telling  at  every  door  the 
Story  of  the  Cross,  and  of  what  Jesus  had  done  for 
him,    Naturally  he  met  at  the  first  many  rebuffs, 


238  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

and  much  ridicule  and  contempt,  for  every  island 
has  its  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  but  his  earnestness 
and  sincerity,  and  strong  unselfish  love,  won  his 
way,  and  Christ's  way,  into  many  hearts.  He  be- 
came one  of  the  most  valued  auxiliaries  of  the  In- 
land Sea  Mission.  Among  other  quaint  devices  for 
the  spread  of  the  Gospel,  he  organized  an  "  Old 
Folks'  Society,"  and  a  "  Bath  Society."  The  suc- 
cess which  has  attended  the  work  of  the  vessel  in 
the  group  of  islands  through  which  he  has  been 
carrying  the  Gospel  Message  owes  much  to  him. 
"  Old  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  the  Cai^tain  used  af- 
fectionately to  call  him.  With  the  Eed  Cross  on 
his  hat  he  still  goes  about  doing  good  and  witness- 
ing for  his  Master,  "the  outstanding  representa- 
tive of  the  Gospel,"  in  that  part  of  the  Inland  Sea. 
May  his  years  be  many !  and  may  his  tribe  increase ! 

A  Chinese  Scroll 

The  following  tale,  borrowed  from  the  Captain's 
log,  illustrates  the  strange  ways  by  which  the 
Good  Shepherd  sometimes  brings  the  wandering 
sheep  into  the  fold. 

**A  young  man  from  one  of  the  Islands  heard  the 
Gospel  from  the  ship's  workers  in  another  island.  He 
was  impressed,  or  rather  aroused  to  opposition,  studied 
the  Bible  for  some  time  in  order  the  better  to  oppose  it, 
was  finally  converted  and  returned  to  his  home.  Rumours 
had  gone  before  him.  The  village  was  ready  to  oppose 
him.  'YasOy  had  he  not  joined  Yasof  Fearlessly  he 
confessed  that  he  had.  Though  he  belonged  to  one  of  the 
leading  families,  the  verdict  was  that  he  must  *move  on.' 
The  opposition  was  headed  by  one  of  his  former  school- 


SOME  ISLAND  STOEIES  239 

mates,  a  young  man  of  good  character  and  standing. 
Tills  young  man,  as  spokesman  of  the  village,  demanded, 
'Give  up  this  hated  thing  or  leave  the  village.'  My 
friend  smiled,  and  said  quietly,  'Well  and  good,  I  will 
go,  but  first  let  me  tell  you  what  I  believe,  so  that  you 
and  I  too  may  know  just  why  I  am  expelled. ' 

*'That  night,  armed  with  his  Bible,  he  met  the  village 
assembly.  He  was  shrewd.  He  soon  had  them  engaged 
in  a  hot  argument,  more  among  themselves  than  with 
him,  as  to  the  merits  of  Christianity,  and  the  claims  of 
the  Bible.  My  friend  kept  them  at  it  till  midnight,  and 
then  suggested  another  session  for  the  following  night. 
This  was  held,  and  then  another,  and  still  another,  by 
which  time  the  village  was  divided  into  two  camps  by 
natural  process.  My  friend  then  used  the  favourable 
party  to  start  a  Sunday  school.  His  former  school- 
mate's hatred  grew  with  the  heat  of  argument,  and  he 
vowed  to  wipe  out  the  disgrace  that  had  come  to  the 
village  through  the  introduction  of  the  hated  foreign  re- 
ligion, and  the  book  which  teaches  it.  The  Christian 
replied  that  he  would  pray  that  God  might  lead  him  to 
love  that  Book  and  its  teaching  as  he  had  himself  come 
to  do. 

**Soon  after,  this  schoolmate  was  drafted  into  the 
army  and  sent  to  Manchuria.  There  to  his  intense  dis- 
gust the  sergeant  under  whom  he  drilled  and  worked 
day  by  day  proved  to  be  a  devout  Christian.  This 
sergeant  gave  him  a  Testament,  and  talked  to  him.  Be- 
ing afraid  of  incurring  the  displeasure  of  his  superior 
he  hid  his  hatred  as  best  he  could,  but  resolved  to 
destroy  the  Book  as  soon  as  he  was  free  from  service. 

**Just  before  being  ordered  home  he  and  others  were 
doing  a  little  looting.  He  entered  a  Chinese  house,  and 
seeing  a  scroll  on  the  wall  was  struck  with  its  beauty, 
and  above  all  by  the  words  written  upon  it.  He  rolled 
it  up  and  hid  it  under  his  tunic  and  so  brought  it  home 
as  a  memento. 


240  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

'*The  village  was  proud  of  its  soldier  son.  The  usual 
feast  of  welcome  was  held  on  his  return.  My  friend, 
the  Christian,  also  went  to  the  reception.  The  returned 
soldier  received  the  congratulations  of  the  villagers,  and 
then  proceeded  to  show  them  his  memento,  saying  that 
the  words  on  the  scroll  were  most  beautiful. 

*  *  My  friend,  the  believer,  listened  for  a  while  in  silence 
to  the  admiring  comments,  and  finally  said,  'These  are 
indeed  most  beautiful  words,  but  do  you  know  where 
they  come  from?  They  are  not  as  you  suppose  the 
words  of  some  Chinese  sage,  they  are  taken  from  this 
Jesus  Book  which  you  so  groundiessly  hate  and  oppose.' 

*'The  ex-soldier  was  deeply  impressed.  He  after- 
ward came  to  my  friend,  the  Christian,  and  said,  *I 
surrender!  I  surrender!  That  God  of  yours  and  that 
Book  of  yours  find  me  out  wherever  I  go.  Now  I  will 
try  to  know  them.  In  fact,  in  some  measure  I  already 
know  them,  through  the  life  and  words  of  the  sergeant 
under  whom  I  served.'  He  thereupon  sought  further 
instruction,  and  is  now  waiting  for  baptism,  while  my 
friend,  the  Christian,  who,  by  the  way,  is  the  clerk  of 
our  little  Fuhuin  Marii  Church,  is  preparing  to  enter  the 
theological  seminary. ' ' 


A  Prodigal  Father 

On  a  beautiful  day  in  May,  1902,  while  the  writer 
was  enjoying  the  vessel's  hospitality,  she  came  to 
anchor  off  a  certain  village.  Two  years  earlier,  on 
the  ship's  first  cruise,  an  attempt  had  been  made  to 
hold  a  meeting  here,  but  without  success.  We 
wondered  what  welcome  would  meet  us  this  time. 
No  sooner  had  the  anchor  chain  rattled  out  than 
the  boat  was  lowered  and  we  were  landed  on  the 
beach  in  front  of  the  village.  There  stood  a  man 
who  at  once  introduced  himself  to  us  as  a  Christian, 


SOME  ISLAND  STOEIES  241 

and  invited  us  to  his  home,  some  distance  away  up 
the  hillside.  Here  we  found  a  bright-faced  old 
lady,  his  mother,  who  gave  us  a  warm  greeting. 
She  was  totally  deaf,  but  conversed  with  her  son, 
and  through  him  with  us,  by  some  original  system 
of  sign-and-lip  language,  supplemented,  if  memory 
serves,  with  pencil  and  paper.  Their  home,  though 
small  and  plain,  was  clean  and  pleasant,  and  one 
could  see  that  they  were  not  just  the  average, 
ordinary  Islanders.  Who  they  were,  and  how  they 
made  our  visit  to  the  island  successful,  is  best  told 
in  the  Captain's  own  words. 

**A  head  wind  and  contrary  tide  since  sun-up  had 
caused  the  Skipper  of  the  Mission  Ship  to  put  the 
sombre-eyed  goggles  onto  his  heart-eyes  and  see  all  his 
mercies  turn  into  black  patches.  The  bright  May  morn- 
ing, the  bold  wood-clad  mountainous  islands,  a  glorious 
sunrise  and  even  a  good  breakfast,  which  ought  to  touch 
a  soft  spot  in  an  old  sailor,  had  all  lost  their  charm. 

**  *If  this  holds  out,  I  shall  not  get  there  in  time  to 
hold  a  meeting  to-night,^  growled  he.  ^I  have  had 
enough  of  this  crawling  for  one  day.  I'll  make  a  fair 
wind  of  it  and  run  to  that  island  to  leeward  and  try  to 
get  a  meeting  in  there.  I  failed  last  time,  it  is  true, 
but  that  is  all  the  better  reason  for  going  again  now. 
Put  your  helm  up  and  run  her  ofP!' 

**Down  went  the  anchor  with  a  rattle  and  off  came  the 
dark  goggles  from  my  heart-eyes.  I  do  not  know  any- 
body here,  how  shall  I  get  a  hearing?  But  that  has  been 
so  in  a  hundred  other  places,  and  there  is  still  the  same 
saving  clause.  If  I  do  not  know  any  one,  God  knows 
some  one.  I  order  the  boat  out  and  land.  A  man  is 
standing  on  the  beach  waiting  for  us.  He  accosts  us  at 
once  and  here  is  the  'some  one'  whom  God  knew.  He 
leads  us  up  the  hill  to  the  house  where  he  and  his  aged 


242  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

mother  live.  Why  is  the  face  of  the  old  mother  so  full 
of  peace,  so  bright  with  hope,  despite  the  irritating  af- 
fliction of  twenty  long  years  of  total  deafness,  forming 
a  strange  contrast  to  the  faces  of  the  many  village 
women  who  soon  gather  near  the  house  to  see  the 
strangers?    Let  me  tell  their  story. 

*'For  seventeen  generations,  father  and  son,  the  men 
of  this  family  had  been  the  representatives  of  the  old 
feudal  lords  of  the  district.  They  and  they  alone  had 
the  privilege  of  wearing  a  sword,  the  sign  in  those  days 
of  official  dignity.  But  a  great  change  came.  The 
feudal  system  was  abolished.  The  father  of  our  friend, 
overcome  by  the  sudden  change,  fell  into  evil  ways, 
deserted  his  wife  and  led  a  wanderer 's  life.  For  twenty 
years  they  were  separated,  lost  to  one  another.  But  the 
Lord  found  them  both  in  separate  ways — the  wander- 
ing, wayward  man,  the  lonely,  deserted  woman.  The 
man  having  become  a  Christian  made  it  his  duty  to 
search  for  his  wife.  He  found  her  and  despite  her  af- 
fliction of  deafness  rejoined  her,  they  living  together  as 
Christian  man  and  wife  until  he  died,  a  period  of  ten 
years,  during  which  time  they  returned  to  their  island 
home.  This  act  of  the  father's  made  a  deep  impression 
on  the  son  and  his  wife.  They  too  became  Christians. 
But  business  interests  engrossed  the  son's  heart  and 
mind.  Then  came  the  little  Mission  Ship.  Entrance  to 
the  village  was  refused,  so  that  no  meeting  was  held. 
Our  friend  was  away  from  the  village  then,  but  on  his 
return  heard  of  our  visit.  God  used  this  to  touch  his 
heart.  It  reminded  him  somehow  of  his  faith,  now 
grown  weak,  and  of  God  whose  love  he  had  begun  to 
forget.  Then  came,  just  a  year  later,  the  testing  time. 
The  old  father  died.  For  his  mother's  sake,  for  the  sake 
of  his  father's  faith  and  witness,  for  his  own  heart's 
sake,  he  resolved  that  his  father  must  have  a  Christian 
burial.  *0f  course,'  say  you,  'quite  right  and  proper.' 
Ah,  friend,  have  you  ever  lived  in  a  heathen  land?    If 


SOME  ISLAND  STOEIES  243 

your  relatives  were  all  heathen,  your  neighbours  for 
miles  around  all  heathen,  if  there  were  long  established 
customs  and  habits  pressing  you  on  all  sides,  if  priests 
and  village  officials  were  urging  against  such  a  stand, 
would  you,  would  I,  with  that  man's  light  to  go  upon, 
be  ready  to  do  as  he  did? 

* '  Our  friend  sent  a  relative  in  haste  over  to  the  main- 
land to  get  a  Christian  pastor  to  come  to  the  island  and 
give  the  father  Christian  burial.  No  sooner  had  he 
crossed  than  the  wind  blew  a  gale.  For  the  pastor  to 
get  over  becomes  impossible.  The  son  and  the  stricken 
mother  wait  in  vain.  Officials  and  relatives  urge.  The 
law  demands  a  speedy  interment.  The  priest  is  ready 
to  attend  to  ceremonials.  Anxiously  they  wait  until  the 
last  moment,  but  the  gale  blows  on  and  the  pastor  does 
not  come.  Should  they  call  in  the  priest?  'No,'  said 
the  son,  *  I  will  not.  It  may  not  be  in  order,  but  God  is 
merciful  and  will  accept  our  humble  efforts.'  And  so 
the  son  announced  to  the  village  that  his  father  should 
have  Christian  burial  and  that  the  priest  would  not  be 
needed.  Then  the  poor  old  deaf  mother  and  the  stout- 
hearted son,  before  the  astonished  villagers  gathered  in 
their  hom.e,  read  from  the  Holy  Book  of  the  life  that  is 
born  in  death,  and  with  uncertain  voices,  these  two 
alone  among  their  heathen  neighbours,  sang  praise  to  the 
God  they  knew.  Then  to  the  grave  they  went,  and  the 
neighbours  heard  the  son  in  prayer  speak  of  hope  un- 
conquered  by  death,  and  again  two  voices  rose  in  praise 
to  God.  Alone  ?  No,  not  so,  for  surely  their  dear  Lord 
was  near. 

**And  so  they  bore  their  witness,  and  so  the  ground 
was  prepared.  So  it  was  that  on  the  morning  when  the 
Skipper  grumbled  at  the  tide  and  wind,  the  school  chil- 
dren saw  the  little  white  craft  bear  down  on  the  village 
and  told  our  friend  it  must  be  the  'Jesus  Ship.'  Hence 
his  hastening  to  meet  us.  A  right  royal  welcome  had 
we  and  a  crowded  meeting  to  crown  the  day. 


244  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

**As  we  bade  our  friends  good-bye  and  set  sail  the 
lesson  came  to  my  heart  once  more  which  I  should  have 
learnt  ere  this.  When  God  by  means  of  the  tides  and 
winds  of  life  speaks,  even  though  it  should  be  to  'put 
your  helm  up'  and  go  where  going  seems  hopeless,  if 
you,  if  I,  but  go  in  faithfulness  we  shall  surely  find  the 
'some  one'  whom  God  knows  waiting  and  the  way  pre- 
pared for  service.'' 

Here  was  one  occasion  where  the  Captain  found 
among  his  j)arishioners  persons  already  believers, 
to  whom  the  visit  of  the  ship  proved  a  great  bless- 
ing, and  who,  in  turn,  became  helpers  in  the  work. 

In  these  three  narratives  we  have  three  instances 
of  persons  belonging  to  the  Captain's  parish  whose 
conversion  to  Christianity  was  not  due  to  the 
work  of  the  vessel.  He  whose  eyes  are  in  every 
l^lace  had  looked  upon  them  and  loved  them  and  by 
the  mysterious  working  of  His  providence  and  His 
Spirit  had  brought  them  into  His  Kingdom.  He 
who  worketh  hitherto  is  busy  in  the  remotest 
islands  where  men  dwell.  To  every  one  of  His 
apostles.  His  missionaries.  He  says  not  only,  "  Lo, 
I  am  with  you  alway,''  but  also,  "  Is  not  the  Lord 
gone  out  before  thee?  "  Here  and  there,  though 
the  instances  among  the  Islanders  were  few,  Cap- 
tain Bickel  reaped  that  upon  which  he  had  bestowed 
no  labour.  But  to  these  scattered  believers  whom 
other  hands  had  led,  the  Little  White  Ship  brought 
new  hope  and  courage  and  joy,  and  they  in  turn 
added  to  the  success  of  the  work. 


XXI 

SOME  MORE  ISLAND  STORIES 

A  Skirmish  with  the  Priests 

THE  influence  which  Christianity  has  had 
upon  the  religious  leaders  of  Japan,  if  the 
Shinto  and  Buddhist  priests  may  be  called 
leaders,  would  be  an  interesting  subject  for  study. 
Here  and  there  one  has  openly  joined  the  Chris- 
tians. The  most  noted  of  these  is  Pastor  Imai, 
formerly  Priest  Ko,  one  of  our  most  acceptable 
Baptist  preachers  and  writers.  For  a  time  he 
sailed  the  Inland  Sea  with  Captain  Bickel. 

Others  of  the  priests  recognize  that  the  old  faiths 
have  had  their  day,  and  that  Christianity  is  the 
religion  of  the  future,  for  Japan  as  for  all  the  rest 
of  the  world,  but  have  not  the  energy,  or  the  cour- 
age, to  break  the  bounds  of  circumstance  and  come 
over  into  a  new  life  themselves.  Others,  again, 
fail  to  discern  the  signs  of  the  times.  They  hope 
to  stay  the  progress  of  the  new  religion  by  borrow- 
ing its  methods,  and  so  we  have  a  Buddhist  Bible 
that  might,  in  appearance,  be  mistaken  for  a  New 
Testament;  a  Young  Men's  Buddhist  Association; 
Buddhist  Sunday  schools;  Buddhist  versions,  or 
perversions,  of  popular  Christian  hymns,  and  the 
like.  There  is  talk  of  a  Buddhist  Central  Taber- 
nacle being  erected  in  Tokyo,  to  offset  the  Baptist 
Tabernacle  there. 

245 


246  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

Among  the  small  proportion  of  tlie  Islanders  wlio 
have  shown  active  hostility  to  the  work  of  the 
vessel,  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  some  of  the 
priests  of  the  many  temples  which  glass  themselves 
in  the  Inland  Sea  waters.  An  instance  of  this  oc- 
curred at  Setoda,  in  1902,  when  that  town  was 
made  the  centre  of  the  East-Central  District.  It 
will  be  recalled  that,  at  the  first,  Setoda  was  un- 
compromisingly opposed  to  Christianity.  This 
hostility  was  ere  long  in  a  measure  overcome,  so 
far  as  the  townsfolk  were  concerned.  Setoda  be- 
came a  regular  place  of  call  for  the  vessel  and  the 
evangelistic  centre  for  the  East-Central  District. 
A  trusty  evangelist  was  put  in  residence.  The 
priests,  however,  still  chanted  a  Hymn  of  Hate. 
The  Captain  tells  us  how  they  were  won  over  to  a 
more  friendly  mood: 

^'Persecution  arose  at  once.  The  priests  of  the  four 
Buddhist  temples  announced  meetings  three  nights  in 
succession.  Several  hundred  people  gathered  to  hear 
the  Christian  invaders  denounced.  The  second  day  the 
evangelist  went  to  the  temples  and  spoke  to  the  priests. 
That  night  those  priests  not  only  did  not  abuse,  but 
turned  and  told  the  story  of  the  Gospel  Ship,  commend- 
ing the  zeal  of  Christians  and  urging  their  followers  to 
be  equally  eager  to  propagate  their  own  faith.  But  a 
priest  from  a  distance  was  there.  His  mood  was  dif- 
ferent. His  words  bore  the  impress  of  his  mood.  Hard 
words  they  were.  The  evangelist  asked  permission  to 
speak.  Before  a  temple  full  of  people  he  cross-ques- 
tioned the  priest  and  scored  decidedly.  The  priest 
finally  refused  to  reply,  saying,  'You  and  I  are  like  fire 
and  water,  we  hate  one  another, '  to  which  the  evangelist 
answered,  *That  is  your  view;  let  me  state  mine.    My 


SOME  MOEE  ISLAND  STOEIES  247 

Master  tells  me  that  you  and  I  are  brethren,  that  I 
must  love  you,  and  this  I  do.'  The  next  day  came  the 
Jesus  Ship.  'She  is  loaded  with  three  hundred 
preachers  from  Tokyo  to  fight  the  priests, '  said  rumour. 
*  Invite  the  priests  to  come  on  board,'  said  we.  They 
came  in  gorgeous  robes.  We  had  an  interesting  con- 
versation, in  the  midst  of  which  they  fell  to  quarrelling 
among  themselves  on  questions  of  their  own  sadly 
divided  faith.  We  visited  their  temples  the  next  day, 
and  one  at  least  of  them  listened  to  our  words  with  more 
than  common  interest.  This  was  four  months  ago.  A 
few  days  since,  in  visiting  the  place,  we  noted  with  real 
gratitude  the  cordial  spirit  shown  by  the  crowded  house 
of  listeners;  and  as  we  went  out  and  met  our  temple 
friends  in  grand  array,  going  around  to  collect  the  cold 
weather  dues,  we  stopped  before  a  wondering  crowd  to 
have  a  friendly  chat.'' 

Good  Captain  Kobayashi 

One  of  those  who  figure  most  prominently  in  the 
chronicles  of  the  Inland  Sea  Mission  is  Captain 
Kobayashi,  the  principal  of  the  Navigation  School 
on  the  Island  of  Yuge.  Yuge  is  about  ten  miles 
west  from  Setoda,  the  headquarters  of  the  Mission. 
Principal  Kobayashi  appears  to  have  recognized 
the  sincerity  and  value  of  the  vessel's  work,  and  the 
ability  and  nobility  of  her  Captain,  from  the  first. 
He  was  already  a  recognized  and  trusted  friend  of 
the  vessel  in  the  early  days  when  the  writer  was 
guest  on  board  her.  The  cordial  welcome  we  re- 
ceived from  him  when  our  voyage  brought  us  to 
Yuge,  and  the  privilege  the  writer  enjoyed  of  giv- 
ing a  talk  on  some  of  the  great  truths  of  the  Gospel 
to  a  group  of  boys  from  the  school,  gathered  on  the 
vessePs  deck  one  Sunday  afternoon,  is  one  of  the 


248  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

pleasant  memories  of  that  far-away  summer.  Tlie 
Captain  had  a  standing  invitation  to  visit  the 
school,  and  to  hold  meetings  for  the  students,  when- 
ever the  ship's  itinerary  brought  her  to  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Yuge.  '*  What  shall  I  talk  to  them 
about  ? ''  said  Captain  Bickel,  for  the  school  had 
been  established  by  a  conmiunity  of  Buddhists,  and 
was  receiving  government  supi3ort.  Missionaries 
are  often  invited  to  speak  in  the  public  schools, 
with  the  proviso  that  religious  subjects  are  taboo, 
on  the  ground  that  such  themes  are  too  abstruse 
for  the  iQimature  minds  of  the  iDupils,  and  that  re- 
ligion and  education  must  be  kept  strictly  separate. 
Captain  Kobayashi  was  not  so  pedantic.  "  Talk 
about !  "  he  exclaimed.  "  Why,  aren't  you  a  Chris- 
tian, known  all  over  these  Islands  as  a  Christian 
teacher?  Talk  about  your  religion;  it  will  do  the 
boys  good."  Captain  Bickel  frequently  availed 
himself  of  this  wide-open  invitation,  and  a  close 
bond  was  formed  between  the  two  Captains,  and  be- 
tween the  School  and  the  Ship.  Eventually  it  was 
arranged  to  have  a  monthly  Christian  service  at  the 
school,  Pastor  Ito,  of  Setoda,  coming  across  the 
water  for  that  purpose ;  and  when  the  vessel  came 
that  way  special  meetings  were  held. 

Missionary  Wynd,  of  Tokyo,  visited  the  island 
as  our  Captain's  guest  in  the  summer  of  1906. 
Sunday  had  been  spent  in  Setoda.  "  On  Monday," 
he  writes,  "  we  weighed  anchor  and  sailed  for  Yuge, 
getting  there  about  three  in  the  afternoon. 
Scarcely  had  we  arrived  when  a  little  boat  put  out 
from  the  shore,  and  soon  the  principal  of  the  school 
was  on  board  welcoming  the  ship  with  an  enthusi- 
asm more  typical  of  the  West  than  of  the  East. 


u 


U 


SOME  MOEE  ISLAND  STOEIES  249 

Following  close  on  the  heels  of  the  master  came  a 
large  boat  filled  with  boys  and,  wonder  of  wonders, 
each  boy  brought  a  Testament  and  hymn  book. 
Soon  they  were  arranged  on  deck,  each  with  his 
open  Bible,  while  we  tried  to  teach  some  of  the 
sublune  truths  of  John's  Gospel  till  the  sun  began 
to  sink.  Then  they  went  back,  after  arranging 
that  we  should  stay  over  till  the  next  day  and  hold 
a  meeting  in  the  school." 

Mr.  Wynd  proceeds  to  tell  us  of  a  less  friendly 
member  of  the  teaching  profession.  "  The  bow  of 
the  good  ship  still  pointing  westward  we  arrived 
on  Wednesday  at  Awa  Island,  where  there  is  an- 
other large  Navigation  School.  '  This  is  one  of 
the  places  I  get  a  cool  reception,'  said  the  Captain. 
'  But  no  matter,  'tis  the  King's  business.  We'll  go 
over  and  see  what  we  can  do  with  them,  since  they 
don't  come  to  us.'  So  over  we  went  to  the  prin- 
cipal's home.  ^  Yes,  the  master  is  at  home,  but  he 
is  ill.'  So  said  the  maid  as  we  presented  ourselves 
at  the  door,  and  asked  for  the  master.  It  was  said, 
too,  in  a  tone  of  voice  meant  to  indicate  that  that 
was  the  end  of  the  matter,  and  that  nothing  more 
could  be  done;  but  it  wasn't  the  end  of  it  by  any 
means.  That  stupid  western  sailor  could  not  un- 
derstand a  hint,  and  stood  there  at  the  door,  hat  in 
hand,  a  far-away  look  in  his  eyes,  as  if  he  meant  to 
stay  on  that  spot  and  study  the  sky  till  the  sick 
master  recovered.  Once  or  twice  from  behind  a 
sliding  paf>er  door  a  dark  head  peeped  to  take  ob- 
servations, and  finding  the  visitors  still  there  we 
were  at  last  invited  into  the  little  side  room.  On  a 
side  table  v/as  arranged  a  display  of  whiskey 
bottles,  and  we  could  not  help  thinking  there  was 


250  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

some  connection  between  these  bottles  and  our  cool 
reception.  But  it  is  amazing  bow  opposition  can 
be  overcome  by  a  man  in  dead  earnest.  We  did  not 
meet  tbe  principal,  but  received  a  message  saying 
that  he  would  consent  to  have  a  meeting  in  the 
school.  And  a  good  meeting  we  had,  with  two 
hundred  and  fifty  boys  present,  though  we  could 
not  but  note  the  difference  between  the  attitude  of 
the  boys  here,  and  that  of  those  at  Yuge." 

But  to  return  to  our  friend,  Captain  Kobayashi. 
When  the  Skipper  of  the  Fukuin  Maru  was  about 
to  sail  for  America  on  furlough  in  April,  1911,  an 
enthusiastic  farewell  meeting  was  held  at  Setoda. 
One  feature  of  the  gathering  was  the  attendance 
of  the  teachers  and  pupils  of  the  Yuge  school,  who 
had  not  grudged  the  time  and  labour  needed  to 
cross  those  leagues  of  water.  Captain  Kobayashi 
had  composed  a  poem  for  the  occasion,  as  an  ex- 
pression of  the  warm  esteem  in  which  Captain 
Bickel  is  held  for  the  sake  of  his  labours  of  love 
on  behalf  of  the  Islands;  and  one  feature  of  the 
celebration  was  the  singing  of  this  poem,  to  a  popu- 
lar air,  by  the  whole  body  of  students.  Captain 
Kobayashi  expressed  the  wish,  on  behalf  of  the 
school,  that  this  poem,  with  an  English  metrical 
translation,  should  be  sent  to  the  Missionary  So- 
ciety in  America,  as  an  expression  of  gratitude  for 
the  benefits  conferred  on  the  Islands  through  the 
work  of  the  Fukuin  Maru,  The  present  scribe,  at 
our  Captain's  request,  made  the  following  trans- 
lation, which  is  severely  literal;  and  the  accom- 
panying paraphrase,  which  presents  the  thought 
and  feeling  of  the  poem  in  ordinary  western  style. 
These,  with  the  original  verses,  were  duly  for- 


SOME  MOEE  ISLAND  STORIES  251 

warded  to  Boston,  and  are  doubtless  treasured  in 
the  archives  of  the  Society. 


In  Farewell  to  Captain  Bickel 

Spring  at  climax,  wind  east. 
Willows  green,  flowers  blushing. 
Laud-laden,  prow  homeward, 
Keel  rushing,  sail  swelling, 
Lo !  the  Fukuin  her  skipper, 
Him  we  greet  Captain  Bickel ! 

The  west  world's  holy  faith, 

Law  of  love,  he  proclaimeth : 
*'For  the  dear  sake  of  Christ 
Love  thou  even  thine  hater. 
Doth  one  buffet  thy  cheek, 
Yield  thou  also  the  other.'' 

Love's  behest,  ah!  how  high! 

But  heart-lowly  we  follow. 

Kindest  Teacher,  best  Friend, 

Setting  sail  o'er  wide  ocean. 

At  our  parting,  this  morrow. 

Ah!  our  hearts, — who  may  know  them? 

Paraphrase 

To-day  is  the  year  at  full  flood. 

And  the  winds  from  the  warm  ocean  reaches 
Sing  loud  with  the  answering  pines, 

Sing  low  thro'  the  green  drooping  willows. 
Again  on  our  fair  Island  slopes 

In  glory  of  purple  and  crimson 
The  azaleas  have  spread  their  brocade. 

Rich  as  gown  of  a  maid  at  her  marriage. 


252  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

Now  our  Captain,  more  bravely  adorned, 

In  brocade  of  the  honours  past  telling 
Wherewith  Heaven  hath  requited  his  toil, 

To  the  home-land  in  triumph  returneth. 
Light,  light  rides  his  bark  on  the  wave, 

Wide,  wide  swell  his  sails  to  the  breezes, 
Our  Captain,  beloved  by  the  Isles, 

Of  the  fair  white  ship,  *'The  Evangel.'* 


'Twas  for  Jesus'  dear  sake  that  he  came 

To  our  Islands  forsaken,  forgotten, 
Bringing  us  riches  more  rare 

Than  the  costliest  bales  of  the  merchant, 
Bringing  that  heavenly  law 

Which  is  lifting  the  life  of  the  nations, 
The  blessed  evangel  of  love 

Which  the  Father  hath  sent  to  His  children. 


How  holy  the  Message  and  high ! 

And  with  reverence,  heart-lowly,  we  greet  it. 
How  divine  is  its  lofty  behest! 

And  our  souls  leap  to  life  at  its  challenge. 
**Eepay  thou  thy  foe  with  thy  love, 

And  deny  not  thy  cheek  to  the  smiter. 
Eemember  thy  Lord  on  the  Cross, 

How  He  prayed  for  His  slayers,  *  Forgive  them.'  " 

Such  is  the  Message  he  brought ; 

That  by  love  are  we  sons  of  our  Father, 
Who  alike  on  the  evil  and  good. 

Sends  the  gift  of  His  rain  and  His  sunshine; 
That  by  love  are  we  brothers  of  Christ, 

Who  gave  up  Himself  for  His  haters; 
That  only  to  love  is  to  live, 

For  of  love  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 


SOME  MOEE  ISLAND  STOEIES  253 

Ah!     Teacher  and  Friend  of  our  Isles, 

Who  hast  taught  us  to  love  by  thy  loving, 
What  gifts — but  no  hands  can  repay, 

Nor  our  lips  our  thanksgivings  can  fashion. 
To-day  must  we  say  thee  farewell? 

Must  the  lonely  expanse  of  the  oceans 
Rise  boundless  betwixt  us  and  thee! 

What  tears — Ah!  thine  own  is  our  sorrow  I 

Good  Captain  Kobayashi's  interest  in  the  Fukuin 
Maru  did  not  slacken  with  the  passing  years,  and 
we  shall  meet  him  and  his  boys  again  when  the  last 
long  farewell  is  to  be  said.  It  is  told  of  him  also 
that  "  though  not  himself  an  avowed  Christian,  he 
surprised  a  group  of  educators  at  Tokyo,  when 
they  were  discussing  the  discipline  of  schools,  by 
saying  boldly  that  the  spirit  of  the  Little  White 
Ship  had  so  far  pervaded  his  own  student  body  as 
to  solve  his  problems  of  discipline.'' 


XXII 

THE  CAPTAIN'S  LAST  CRUISE 

THE  eighteenth  year  of  the  Era  of  the 
Fukuin  Maru  promised  to  be  one  of  un- 
usual growth  in  the  Inland  Sea  Mission. 
The  new  mission  ship,  released  by  order  of  govern- 
ment from  her  moorings  in  the  pine-fringed  bight  of 
Miyanoura  after  chafing  at  her  cables  for  a  year 
and  a  half,  was  again  cruising  among  the  Islands, 
and  everywhere  there  was  a  ^'  sound  of  abundance 
of  rain.'^  In  the  several  inner  sea  groups,  in  which 
work  had  been  prosecuted  since  the  first  Fukuin 
Maru  made  her  voyage  of  discovery,  the  new  Teach- 
ing had  already  won  a  large  place  for  itself.  On 
Shozu,  on  Ikuchi,  on  Oshima,  in  the  Kurahashi 
group,  every^^here  believers  and  enquirers  were 
multiplying.  The  light  was  spreading.  New 
islands,  new  villages  were  opening  their  doors  to 
the  Gospel  messengers.  Sunday  schools,  various 
kinds  of  Christian  societies,  industrial  enterprises 
and  the  like  were  increasing  in  number  and  in- 
fluence. 

Out  on  the  newly  opened  Isles  of  the  Deep  Sea, 
also,  the  signs  of  promise  were  bright.  Mr.  Shi- 
bata,  recently  ordained  assistant  pastor  of  the 
Fukuin  Maru  Church,  had  his  evangelistic  centre  at 
Hirado,  on  the  island  of  that  name,  and  was  carry- 

254 


THE  CAPTAIN'S  LAST  CEUISB  255 

ing  on  regular  work  at  fifteen  of  tlie  principal 
places  in  tlie  four  island  clusters  of  tlie  South- 
western District.  Already,  in  1916,  lie  had  gath- 
ered about  him  a  considerable  group  of  believers 
and  enquirers.  Among  these  were  two  young  men 
belonging  to  two  of  the  leading  Shizoku  families, 
the  gentry  as  we  would  say.  Not  only  had  they 
become  Christians  themselves  but  had  consecrated 
their  lives  to  the  service  of  Christ  as  preachers  of 
the  Gospel,  and  were  ready  to  enter  the  Theological 
School. 

The  Captain^s  health,  too,  which  from  the  time  of 
his  breakdown  in  the  second  year  of  the  work  he 
had  never  fully  recovered,  and  which  had  given 
frequent  occasion  for  grave  concern,  had  latterly 
seemed  to  be  growing  more  robust.  This  was  no 
doubt  due  in  part  to  the  physical  and  mental  relief 
afforded  by  the  splendid  efficiency  of  the  new  ves- 
sel. The  bone-breaking,  heart-breaking  tussles 
with  wind  and  tide,  the  sleepless  nights  at  the 
wheel  exposed  to  cold  and  storm,  were  things  of 
the  past.  On  the  spiritual  side  of  the  work,  also, 
the  intense  strain  of  the  early  years  was  greatly 
relieved.  He  had  come  to  his  field  single-handed, 
even  the  evangelist  who  accompanied  him  on  his 
first  voyage  proving  to  be  no  true  helper.  As  for 
the  ship's  company,  it  was  a  case  of  a  man's  foes 
being  they  of  his  own  household.  On  all  the  clus- 
tered islands  which  formed  his  parish,  there  was 
not  a  house  where  he  could  expect  a  welcome,  nor 
a  man  whom  he  could  count  his  friend.  Now,  the 
seven  sailors  were  brethren  beloved,  fellow-workers 
in  the  Gospel,  the  joy  of  their  skipper's  heart.  The 
Shepherds  of  the  Isles,  each  in  his  own  district, 


256  CAPTAIK  BICKEL 

A- 

were  pusTiing  forward  tlieir  work  with  sometliing 
of  the  Captain's  own  tireless  devotion.  Among 
the  Islands  were  a,  thousand  homes  glad  to  receive 
him  as  guest ;  many  thousands  of  persons  proud  to 
claim  his  acquaintance.  From  among  these  Island 
folks,  everywhere  from  Shozu  to  the  Gotos,  lay 
workers  were  appearing,  men  and  women,  assuring 
the  growth  and  permanence  of  the  work.  No  won- 
der that  the  Captain's  health  had  begun  to  mend, 
and  no  wonder  that  he  looked  forward  to  the  year 
1917  as  one  of  rapidly  developing  mission  activities. 

Apart  from  the  three  hundred  baptized  believers 
there  had  arisen  a  great  body  of  adherents,  well- 
wishers  and  friends  of  the  Captain  and  his  work. 
The  four  thousand  boys  and  girls  in  the  Sunday 
schools,  the  several  thousands  of  interested  persons 
listed  on  the  ship's  books  and  reading  the  ship's 
literature,  the  forty  thousand  members  of  that 
four-hundred-section  class  in  Christian  doctrine 
which  had  been  meeting  for  sixteen  years,  all  these 
and  many  more  counted  the  visits  of  the  little  ship 
the  visits  of  a  friend.  In  scores  of  islands  she  had 
become  a  part  of  the  community  life.  Where  her 
Captain  had  been  a  stranger  and  a  foreigner,  un- 
companioned  save  for  the  companionship  of  the 
ever-present  Lord,  he  was  now  the  universal  friend, 
"  the  best  loved  man  in  the  Islands." 

The  membership  of  the  FuJcuin  Maru  Church  had 
increased  tenfold  in  eight  years.  Though  scat- 
tered over  sixty  islands  they  had  been  well  shep- 
herded, and  the  Captain  could  say  of  them,  "  Of 
those  whom  Thou  hast  given  me  I  have  lost  none." 
The  church  was  alive  and  growing,  and  the  day 
seemed  already  near  when  there  would  be  a  thou- 


THE  CAPTAIN'S  LAST  CKUISE  257 

sand  names  on  its  roll.    We  of  the  mainland  had 
begun  to  anticipate  a  time  when  the  nmnber  of 
Isfand  Christians  would  overtake  and  surpass  the 
aggregate  membership  of  all  the  mainland  Baptist 
churches.    The  Japanese  Baptist  Convention,  which 
had  been  somewhat  inclined  to  look  askance  on  the 
Inland  Sea  Mission  as  an  erratic  effort  on  behalf 
of  ignorant  and  irresponsive  peasants  and  fisher- 
men, had  come  to  recognize  the  importance  both  of 
the  field  and  of  the  work,  and  had  asked  that  the 
groups  of  Christians  on  the  Islands  be  erected  into 
an  Island  Association,  to  have  equal  standing  in 
the  Convention  with  the  several  other  associations. 
For  while  the  whole  body   of  believers   on  the 
Islands  were  still  enrolled  in  the  Fukuin  Maru 
Church,  already  the  local  groups  of  Christians  who 
worshipped  at  Tonosho,  Setoda,  Agenosho,  Kura- 
hashi,    Hirado,    and    elsewhere    were    practically 
branch  churches,  ripening  for  separate  organiza- 
tion.    Humanly  speaking  the  day  was  not  far  when 
on  every  important  island  there  would  be  a  church 
of  Jesus  Christ,  of  men  and  women  saved  through 
His  grace  and  united  in  His  service.     The  year 
1917  was  expected  to  bring  that  prospect  a  long 
way  toward  realization. 

There  was,  however,  one  feature  of  the  situation 
which  must  have  caused  the  Captain  much  wear 
and  tear  of  mind  and  soul.  For  a  year  or  two  the 
appropriations  for  the  work  of  the  Inland  Sea 
Mission,  always  inadequate,  had  been  painfully  in- 
sufficient. In  the  financial  year  1915-16,  "  under 
the  most  stringent  pressure  and  painful  economies  " 
the  cost  of  the  undertaking  had  considerably  over- 
run the  grant  which  the  Mission  Treasury  felt  able 


268  CAPTAIN  BIOKEL 

to  make.  For  191G-17  tlie  appropriation  was  even 
less,  notwithstanding  tlie  great  increase  in  the  cost 
of  carrying  on  the  work  caused  by  the  rapid  rise  in 
prices  through  the  War.  This  rendered  imperative 
a  swee^Ding  reduction  in  the  expenses  of  the  Fukuin 
Maru  enterprise ;  which  meant  that  the  whole  enter- 
prise was  weakened  and  crij)pled  just  at  the  time 
when  to  be  i)roperly  furnished  meant  rapid  and 
solid  growth.  The  i)lan  of  providing  each  of  the 
five  evangelists  with  the  assistant  so  sorely  needed 
had  of  course  to  be  dropped,  even  the  assistant  al- 
ready placed  with  Pastor  Ito  at  Setoda  being  with- 
drawn. One  of  the  Five  Shepherds  even,  he  of  the 
Kurahashi  Group,  had  to  discontinue  his  service. 
The  colportage  work  of  the  little  Fukuin  Maru 
No,  2,  carried  on  by  her  zealous  Captain  Hirata, 
had  to  cease.  The  mileage  of  the  Fukuin  Maru's 
evangelistic  voyages  was  sharply  curtailed,  for 
every  mile  costs  money  with  fuel  oil  at  three  prices. 
One  of  the  trips  to  the  Deep  Sea  Isles  had  to  be 
cut  out.  The  use  of  the  handy  gasoline  launch, 
which  had  been  saving  the  Captain  so  much  hard 
labour,  had  to  be  dispensed  with.  Literature  ex- 
penses, too,  had  to  be  greatly  reduced.  The  4,000 
children  in  the  Sunday  schools  must  forego  their 
much  prized  lesson  cards.  The  ship's  newspaper, 
a  monthly  messenger  of  cheer  to  thousands  of 
lonely  island  homes,  was  cut  down  to  half  its  size. 
Even  with  all  these  and  similar  heart-breaking 
economies  the  work  faced  a  deficit  of  a  thousand 
dollars.  And  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
Captain  put  every  cent  of  his  personal  income,  out- 
side bare  family  expenses,  into  the  work.  What 
this  drastic  entrenchment  in  his  beloved  work,  at 


THE  CAPTAIN'S  LAST  CEUISB  259 

a  time  so  big  with  promise,  meant  to  hiiii  in  travail 
and  burden  of  soul,  may  be  left  to  the  imagination 
of  those  who  had  it  in  the  power  of  their  hand  to 
relieve  him.  Would  that  a  few  thousand  dollars  of 
the  surplus  billions  in  the  hands  of  American  Bap- 
tists might  have  found  their  way  to  the  Little  White 
Ship !  Will  any  similar  sum  spent  on  the  War  be 
a  tithe  as  useful? 

Apart  from  the  financial  problem  the  outlook  for 
the  year  was  most  reassuring,  and  our  Captain, 
accustomed  as  a  sailor  and  a  handy -man  to  make 
his  tools  serve  his  need,  entered  upon  its  work  full 
of  enthusiasm. 

In  February  a  somewhat  severe  attack  of  illness 
of  a  paratyphoidal  nature  laid  him  prostrate,  and 
he  did  not  allow  himself  time  to  fully  recover  his 
strength  before  returning  to  his  work.  In  April 
the  Annual  Meetings  of  the  Fukuin  Martin  Church, 
an  important  event  of  the  year,  were  to  be  held,  and 
into  the  necessary  arrangements  for  these  he  threw 
himself  with  his  customary  zeal.  Of  the  doings  at 
these  meetings  we  have  to  thank  Mrs.  Bickel  for 
the  following  interesting  report,  contributed  to  the 
May  number  of  Gleanings, 


''I  thought  I  should  like  to  tell  all  my  fellow- workers 
about  our  Annual  Church  Meetings  this  year  which  be- 
gan April  1st  and  went  along  on  various  lines  until  the 
6th.  Such  a  time  of  fellowship  and  encouragement  as 
it  was,  I  shall  never  forget! 

''This  year  the  meetings  were  held  in  the  town  of 
Tonosho,  the  centre  of  the  most  eastern  of  our  five 
Island  sections.  This  section  is  in  charge  of  Murakami 
San  and  his  good  wife. 


260  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

''For  some  time  before  these  meetings,  the  workers 
with  Captain  had  been  planning  all  sorts  of  things. 
The  chief  feature  was  to  bring  up  on  the  ship  from  the 
East,  Central,  Western  and  Southwestern  Groups  as 
many  of  the  believers  as  possible.  They  were  to  gather 
at  Setoda  and  make  the  run  to  Tonosho,  a  distance  of 
eighty-five  miles.  This  of  course  sounded  very  good  to 
the  many  who  had  planned  to  go  to  the  meetings,  and 
they  looked  forward  to  the  trip  with  no  end  of  pleasure. 
Captain  and  I  hoped  and  hoped  the  weather  would  be 
good,  for  we  knew  that  journey,  as  we  have  been  over 
the  ground  so  many  times  in  the  past  nineteen  years,  in 
bad  weather  and  good;  and  I  laughingly  said  to  Cap- 
tain, '  I  think  you  had  better  let  the  engineer  make  some 
tin  basins  in  case  of  need!'  Well,  all  our  fears  were 
needless. 

*'When  April  1st  dawned,  at  5  a.m.,  Captain  and  I 
were  standing  at  the  gangway  in  Setoda  Straits  receiv- 
ing the  first  load  of  guests,  while  the  anchor  was  being 
weighed  and  the  sailors  getting  everything  ready  for 
our  journey.  It  was  an  ideal  day,  with  not  a  ripple  on 
the  water,  and  beautiful  sunshine  overhead.  We  left 
Setoda  at  5 :  30  a.  m.  and  running  five  miles  picked  up 
another  boat  full  of  guests,  then  five  miles  further  on 
slowed  down  again  for  more  guests,  then  went  on  to 
another  village  where  we  picked  up  the  last  three  at 

7  A.  M. 

''What  a  happy  crowd  it  was,  just  like  a  big  family! 
Some  were  looking  at  pictures  down  in  our  Assembly 
Room,  some  were  on  the  bridge  with  Captain,  some  with 
me  in  the  deck  house,  some  singing  hymns  on  deck  or 
chatting  together.  One  and  all  were  full  of  joy.  Then 
at  luncheon  time  we  sat  on  the  ship's  deck  enjoying  our 
food  and  looking  around  at  God's  handiwork,  rejoicing 
that  we  were  His  children. 

"A  strange  feeling  of  awe  seemed  to  fill  the  hearts 
of  these  Christian  delegates  from  four  prefectures  as 


THE  CAPTAIN'S  LAST  CEUISB  261 

they  passed  island  after  island  where  other  Christians 
had  come  to  be  their  brothers  and  sisters  during  these 
few  brief,  busy  years  of  the  ship's  work. 

''The  lighthouse  folk  at  Nabe  Shima  having  read  of 
the  proposed  run  of  the  ship,  saluted  with  flags  and 
handkerchiefs  and  babies  in  arms  as  we  passed  by. 
Tonosho  was  in  sight  at  two  o'clock.  All  got  ready  to 
go  ashore  when  we  anchored,  but  first  an  impromptu 
Thanksgiving  Service  w^as  held  on  deck.  When  that 
was  finished  and  the  anchors  down,  the  Eastern  Group 
believers  were  waiting  on  shore  to  welcome  the  guests 
we  had  brought.  Our  intention  to  go  to  the  hotel  direct 
was  dropped  in  the  sea  when  the  two  deacons  from 
Tonosho  came  on  board,  for  they  said,  'We  have  been 
waiting  for  the  ship  to  come  and  all  its  load  of  guests  to 
be  present  at  the  baptismal  service  of  nine  candidates 
which  is  now  to  take  place  over  yonder.'  Then  there 
was  eagerness  to  get  ashore  so  as  not  to  keep  the  service 
waiting  too  long.  It  was  a  fine  service  and  we  came 
back  to  the  ship  for  supper  thankful  for  all  the  bless- 
ings God  is  giving  to  the  workers  in  these  Islands;  but 
the  day  was  not  finished,  for  there  were  officers'  meet- 
ings and  welcome  meetings  in  the  evening  which  lasted 
well  on  toward  midnight. 

''Next  m.orning  the  meetings  began  at  9  a.  m.  I  could 
not  get  there  until  later  and  I  shall  not  forget  the  im- 
pression made  on  me  when  I  entered  that  hall  (which 
had  been  loaned  for  the  occasion  by  the  town,  the  local 
preaching-place  being  too  small)  and  saw  it  well  filled 
with  an  earnest  assembly  of  believers,  men  and  women 
loving  the  same  Father  we  have  been  taught  to  love 
since  our  childhood.  My  mind  went  back  to  the  first 
years  of  my  husband's  work  in  these  Islands  and  my 
first  years  of  ship  life,  and  though  I  have  had  many  and 
many  unpleasant  experiences  I  could  truly  say  I  was 
thankful  that  God  had  called  Captain  to  this  work ;  and 
though  I  have  rebelled  often  at  my  life  on  the  ship  yet 


262  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

it  seemed  that  morning  as  I  sat  in  that  meeting,  truly; 
all  was  worth  while. 

' '  The  morning  meeting  was  just  a  helpful  service  for 
the  Christians.  It  lasted  until  noon.  Then  we  all  went 
to  the  hotel  and  had  our  noon  meal  together  as  happy  as 
could  be.  After  lunch,  the  annual  church  business 
meeting  was  held.  That  lasted  until  6  p.  m.  Captain 
and  I  came  back  to  the  ship  for  our  evening  meal,  just 
a  bit  tired  after  sitting  Japanese  fashion  from  9  a.  m. 
until  6  p.  M. 

"That  evening  another  meeting,  an  open  praise  and 
prayer  meeting,  was  held  which  with  the  reading  of 
personal  messages  from  147  members  in  many  places 
took  till  midnight.     Thus  ended  the  second  day. 

* '  Tuesday,  the  third  day,  the  meeting  began  at  9  a.  m., 
with  a  solemnly  joyous  Communion  Service.  Such  a 
precious  time  it  was !  That  ended  at  11  a.  m.  and  then 
all  came  on  board  with  their  lunches  and  were  taken 
round  to  a  place  fourteen  miles  distant  called  Sliimo- 
mura,  whence  they  could  climb  Kankake  Mountain,  one 
of  the  noted  places  of  Japan. 

'^Wednesday  morning  all  the  workers  from  the  dif- 
ferent centres  of  the  Island  work  came  on  board  to  have 
a  formal  workers'  meeting,  to  plan  new  efforts  to  help 
the  Island  people.  That  meeting  lasted  until  2  p.  m. 
Then  as  all  seemed  tired  with  meetings  it  was  suggested 
that  we  invite  the  remaining  believers  and  climb  an- 
other interesting  mountain  on  this  island,  where  every 
year  thousands  of  pilgrims  come  to  worship.  We  all 
willingly  went  and  had  another  delightful  afternoon 
together,  a  big  family  all  one  in  love  and  faith. 

''Thursday  morning  all  the  visiting  believers  and 
workers,  men  and  women,  came  on  board  at  7  a.  m. 
hoping  to  reach  our  anchorage  at  Tonosho  in  time  for 
the  guests  and  workers  to  catch  the  morning  steamer,  to 
return  to  their  homes.  But  just  as  we  were  coming  into 
Tonosho  Harbour  the  steamer  was  going  out.    But '  'Tis 


THE  CAPTAIN'S  LAST  CEXJISE  263 

an  ill  wind  that  blows  nobody  good,'  and  instead  of  be- 
ing troubled  over  it  we  rejoiced  to  have  one  more  day 
together. 

''Mr.  and  Mrs.  Murakami  invited  our  women  w^orkers 
and  women  guests  to  their  home  for  that  day  and  night. 
Our  evangelist  stayed  on  board.    We  had  a  good  time 
that  day.    After  dinner  another  noted  place  on  the 
island  was  visited,  with  the  usual  praise  meeting  in  the 
open  air.     Then  in  the  evening  we  all  met  at  Mr.  Mura- 
kami's for  a  giju-nahe  (a  stew  of  meat  and  vegetables 
cooked  over  the  Mhaclii  'while  you  wait ') .     I  just  should 
have  liked  all  our  friends  to  have  peeped  in  at  us  that 
evening,  making  our  gyu-nahe  at  different  tables,  laugh- 
ing and  talking  and  oh,   so  happy  with  each   other. 
Thus  our  Annual  Church  Kally  ended  wdth  a  social 
meeting,  for  the  next  morning,  Friday,  all  the  visitors 
were  up  and  at  the  steamship  landing  by  7  a.  m.,  to  part 
in  different  directions  for  homes  and  fields  of  work,  re- 
joicing in  opportunities  of  loving  service  for  the  Master. 
And  as  Captain  and  I  waved  them  farewell,  we  were 
tired?     Yes;   a  little,   after  all  was  over,  but  oh,   so 
grateful  for  all  that  was  being  done  for  these  Island 
people  in  God's  name.'' 

This  was  the  first  time  the  Annual  Meeting  had 
been  held  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  Captain's  far- 
stretching  parish,  and  there  was  some  fear  that 
the  attendance  would  be  slim  and  the  results 
meagre,  but  this  fear  was  soon  dispelled.  Among 
the  groups  of  Christians  whom  the  ship  picked  up 
on  her  way  east  from  Setoda,  and  in  the  gathering 
at  Tonosho,  there  was  evident  a  deep  spiritual 
earnestness  that  filled  the  hearts  of  Captain  and 
Mrs.  Bickel  with  thankfulness  and  joy,  and  with 
a  new  confidence  in  the  Island  believers  as  a  power 
behind  the  future  work  of  the  vessel.     "  They  came 


264  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

away  from  the  farewell  meeting  filled  with  satis- 
faction and  gratitude  and  expectant  hope."  Yes, 
they  looked  forward,  with  reason,  to  many  years  of 
joyful  and  fruitful,  if  arduous  service.  With  the 
daily  increasing  spiritual  momentum  of  the  work 
what  might  not  be  hoped  for  within  ten  years, 
within  twenty  years,  within  the  years  of  active 
labour  the  Captain  might  hope  to  spend  in  his 
Island  parish?  But  he  had  sailed  his  last  cruise 
in  the  Little  White  Ship.  This  was  his  last  meeting 
with  his  people  of  the  Inland  Sea,  his  last  public 
service  on  the  Islands.  It  was  fitting  that  it  should 
be  at  Tonosho,  of  Shozu,  within  view  of  those  moun- 
tains into  whose  dark  shadow  the  little  mission 
craft  had  crept  that  first  night  of  active  service. 
It  was  fitting,  too,  that  the  triumphal  progress 
through  the  Islands  to  gather  up  the  Christians 
waiting  on  their  shores  should  have  begun  at 
Setoda — surly,  churlish,  grudging  Setoda,  now 
overflowing  with  good-will  and  helpfulness,  the 
Christian  Capital  of  the  Inland  Sea. 


XXIII 

'^SUNSET  AND  EVENING  BELL'' 

WHEN  Captain  Bickel  arrived  in  Japan,  in 
May,  1898,  we  thouglit  him  the  embodi- 
ment of  health  and  manly  vigour.  Tall, 
broad-shouldered,  muscular,  with  the  wholesome 
colour  and  clear  eye  of  a  hardy  seaman,  he  looked 
fit  for  fifty  years  of  arduous  labour.  His  seafaring 
life  had  inured  him  to  hardship  and  exposure. 

With  a  sailor's  lavishness,  and  a  Christian's 
consecration,  he  flung  himself  upon  his  task,  body 
and  soul.  The  magnitude  of  that  task,  its  inherent 
difQ.culties,  his  inadequate  equipment,  were  to  him 
but  the  more  compelling  challenge  to  heroic  en- 
deavour. It  hardly  occurred  to  him  in  those  first 
ardent  years  that  he  might  overdraw  his  physical 
resources.  When  friends  urged  moderation  he 
smilingly  replied  that  if  the  burdens  were  heavy 
the  shoulders  on  which  they  were  laid  were 
broad. 

Not  that  he  was  in  matters  of  health  a  deliberate 
spendthrift.  In  the  matter  of  diet,  indeed,  he  was 
more  careful  than  missionaries  usually  are.  He 
consistently  refused  to  touch  Japanese  food,  and 
so  far  as  life  on  shipboard  would  permit,  insisted 
on  an  appetizing  and  wholesome  foreign  diet, 
cooked  and  served  in  foreign  style.     0-mi-o-tsuke, 

265 


266  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

fried  tofu,  shredded  cuttlefish,  herring- and-kelp, 
soha-yaki, — from  all  such  native  dishes  he  held 
himself  strictly  aloof.  He  believed  that  suitable 
and  sufQ-cient  nourishment  greatly  reduces  the 
need  for  rest  and  sleep,  a  contention  which  the 
experiences  of  sailors  seem  to  substantiate,  and  a 
doctrine  which  has  been  held  by  other  than  sea- 
faring men.  His  intensely  active  mind  made  it 
impossible  for  him  to  rest  during  his  working 
hours,  as  other  men  rest;  and  as  for  sleep,  he  al- 
lowed himself  short  rations,  hardly  hrJf  of  what 
ordinary  mortals  need,  and  it  was  no  unusual  thing 
for  him  to  keep  an  all-night  vigil,  coaxing  his  little 
ship  along  to  her  next  place  of  call. 

The  intense  physical  and  nervous  strain  of  the 
work,  however,  rapidly  told  upon  even  his  wrought- 
iron  constitution,  and  already  in  the  second  year 
of  his  mission  he  found  his  health  seriously  threat- 
ened. From  that  time  forward  he  was  probably 
never  in  sound  and  comfortable  health.  Again  and 
again  he  was  comiDelled  to  lay  up  the  mission  craft 
in  some  snug  cove  among  the  Islands,  and  lie  up, 
himself,  for  repairs.  For  the  most  part,  however, 
the  ardour  of  his  soul  overcame  the  weakness  of 
his  body,  and  he  remained  at  his  jDOst,  doing  more 
than  a  man's  work,  in  spite  of  feebleness  and  pain. 

As  remarked  elsewhere,  the  conditions  under 
which  he  laboured  became  gradually  less  exacting, 
as  his  parish  became  familiar  ground,  and  the  ves- 
sel's equipment  more  efficient;  and  the  Captain's 
health,  we  thought,  was  slowly  returning  to  a  nor- 
mal state.  Then  came  the  serious  illness  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1917.  It  passed,  as  other  attacks  had 
passed,  but  its  effects  still  lingered  when  the  time 


in 


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^*  SUNSET  AND  EVENING  BELL^^  267 

came  for  tlie  Annual  Meetings  at  Tonoslio.  To  the 
Avidely  scattered  Island  Christians  these  meetings 
were  the  great  event  of  the  year,  the  one  oppor- 
tunity for  mutual  acquaintance  and  fellowship  and 
counsel.  Without  their  beloved  Leader's  presence 
half  the  joy  and  inspiration  would  be  lacking.  So 
the  Captain  vras  there,  spending  himself  prodigally 
day  by  day  to  be  a  blessing  to  them  all.  So  they 
kept  the  feast  with  gladness,  not  dreaming  that 
they  should  see  his  face  no  more. 

But  when  the  meetings  were  ended  and  the  be- 
lievers had  dispersed  to  their  Island  homes,  the 
Little  White  Ship  did  not  turn  her  prow  again  to- 
ward the  west.  Her  Skipper  had  an  errand  to 
Kobe.  He  would  be  back  in  a  few  days,  and  ready 
for  a  long  cruise  down  the  western  isles.  He  saw 
that  the  vessel  was  safely  moored,  and  gave  orders 
to  the  crew  to  keep  all  taut  and  trim.  He  cast  a 
last  keen  glance  over  the  ship,  the  ship  that  he 
loved,  that  was  part  of  his  life,  of  himself,  with 
which  he  hoped  to  accomplish  so  much  for  his 
Island  parish  in  the  years  that  lay  stretching  into 
the  future.  The  ship's  boat  lay  at  the  foot  of  the 
ladder.  He  handed  Mrs.  Bickel  in,  and  the  boat 
sprang  away  toward  the  beach.  ^^  Sayonara! "" 
he  cried  to  the  sailors  grouped  at  the  head  of  the 
ladder,  caps  in  hand.  ^^  Bayonara!  Hayaku  o 
kaeri  nasal! ''  ("Good-bye!  Come  back  soon!'') 
they  called  cheerily,  and  returned  smiling  to  their 
daily  tasks. 

The  hospitable  missionary  home  at  Kobe,  under 
the  pine-clad  heights  of  Mount  Eokko,  welcomed 
the  Caj)tain  and  his  wife  as  honoured  guests.  Had 
not  the  Mission  to  the  Islanders  been  Dr.  Thomson's 


268  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

dream  back  in  the  'eighties,  a  dream  which  came  to 
fulfillment  in  the  fair  white  shij)  and  her  noble  Cap- 
tain? They  would  have  some  pleasant  days  to- 
gether while  the  doctors  put  Captain  Bickel  in 
repair. 

It  was  found  necessary  to  perform  a  slight  sur- 
gical operation.  No  serious  consequences  were 
anticipated.  A  few  days'  rest  and  he  would  be 
back  on  his  ship.  What  new  villages,  new  islands 
could  he  bring  into  his  next  cruise?  What  new 
features  could  he  introduce,  that  would  further  the 
progress  of  the  work?  He  must  not  miss  calling 
on  Kato  Suji-saburo,  the  gruff  old  farmer  on 
Kitagi,  and  on  Tanaka  Haru-ko,  the  sick  widow  on 
Innoshima. 

The  operation  was  apparently  successful.  The 
wound  quicldy  healed.  But  the  i^atient  did  not 
make  the  expected  rapid  recovery.  Something  was 
wrong.  He  had  drawn  too  heavily  on  his  reserves. 
The  effects  of  the  February  illness  were  still  in  his 
blood,  a  subtle  poison  that  baffled  the  doctor's  skill. 
Septic  peritonitis  and  septic  pneumonia,  they  called 
it,  for  which  the  materia  medica  contained  no 
remedy. 

She  who  had  for  twenty  years  shared  his  voyages 
and  his  labours  was  beside  him,  and  loving  friends 
about  him.  All  was  done  that  hmnan  love  and 
skill  could  do.  There  was  another  Presence,  too,  in 
that  quiet  chamber,  as  the  sun  went  down,  that  of 
Him  whom  he  had  loved  and  whom  he  had  served 
with  a  love  and  loyalty  beyond  what  is  common  to 
man,  of  Him  with  whom  he  had  companied  many 
a  lonely  night  at  the  vessel's  wheel,  of  Him  who 
had  been  with  Nagai  Minoru  in  the  thatched  cot- 


"SUNSET  AND  EVENING  BELL"  269 

tage  on  Shozu  Sliima — tlie  presence  of  Him  of 
whom  our  great  poet  lias  written, 

**And  I  shall  see  my  Pilot  face  to  face 
When  I  have  crossed  the  Bar." 

It  was  the  11th  of  May,  and  eventide.  The  sun- 
set glow  was  fading  over  the  Inland  Sea.  Down 
on  the  Little  White  Ship  the  "  second  dog  watch '' 
was  ending,  and  the  sailor  on  duty  strolled  up  the 
deck  to  strike  the  "  eight  bells  "  that  usher  in  the 
first  watch  of  the  night.  But  for  the  Captain  the 
dawn  was  breaking.  It  was  morning  in  heaven. 
The  Captain  had  made  his  last  port.  The  Bar  was 
crossed  and  he  had  met  his  Pilot  face  to  face. 

"Now  it  befell  when  the  time  was  come  in  the 
which  the  man  of  God  should  die,  that  God  bent 
over  the  face  of  Moses  and  kissed  him.  And  the 
soul  leaped  up  in  joy,  and  went  with  the  Kiss  of 
God  to  Paradise.  Then  a  sad  cloud  draped  the 
heavens,  and  the  winds  wailed,  ^Who  lives  now 
upon  earth  to  fight  against  sin  and  error?  '  And  a 
voice  answered,  '  Such  a  prophet  never  arose  be- 
fore.' And  the  earth  lamented,  '  1  have  lost  the 
holy  one.'  And  Israel  lamented, '  We  have  lost  the 
shepherd.'  And  the  angels  sang,  ^He  is  come  in 
peace  to  the  arms  of  God.'  " 


XXIV 
A  TRIUMPHAL  FUNERAL 

THE  angels  sang,  "  He  is  come  in  peace  to 
the  arms  of  God ; "  but  the  earthly  body, 
broken  and  worn  with  many  years  of  toil 
and  pain  through  which  the  too  ardent  spirit  had 
driven  it,  lay  at  rest  at  last,  in  the  sleep  that 
knows  no  waking,  in  the  quiet  guest-chamber  of  the 
missionary  home  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Eokko.  The 
soul  God  had  taken  to  Himself ;  the  body  in  which 
it  had  tabernacled  He  left  to  us  to  lay  in  its  last 
resting  place  with  such  marks  of  love  and  honour 
as  might  be. 

The  sense  of  loss  and  sorrow  in  the  hearts  of  the 
Island  Christians  when  the  news  of  the  Captain's 
departure  was  flashed  down  the  Inland  Sea  was 
like  that  felt  at  the  death  of  a  beloved  father.  At 
first  they  were  stunned  by  the  suddenness  and 
heaviness  of  the  blow,  not  knowing  which  way  to 
turn  for  help  and  comfort.  Then,  as  the  wonder- 
ful years  which  had  passed  over  the  Islands  since 
the  beginning  of  the  era  of  the  Fukuin  Maru  rushed 
back  into  memory,  the  beauty  of  the  Captain's  life 
and  the  splendour  of  the  purpose  which  had  ani- 
mated him,  and  of  the  achievements  he  had 
wrought,  aroused  in  them  an  ardour  which  made 
grief  forgotten.     The  news  of  his  death  became  to 

270 


A  TEIUMPHAL  FUNEEAL  271 

tlieni  a  clarion  call  to  do  him  honour  by  taking  up 
and  carrying  forward  the  work  for  which  he  had 
lived  and  died.  "It  is  for  us,"  they  cried,  "to 
make  sure,  by  the  grace  of  God,  that  though  our 
leader  has  fallen  his  work  is  not  to  fail,  but  to  move 
forward  to  fresh  conquests,  through  the  power  of 
the  Undying,  Conquering  Spirit  which  wrought 
through  him.  Our  Captain  and  Shepherd  has  been 
called  to  his  reward,  but  in  his  place  a  thousand 
Captain  Bickels  must  arise,  his  spiritual  suc- 
cessors, among  our  Island  villages."  For  the  com- 
fort of  their  ovv^n  hearts,  and  to  perpetuate  the  Cap- 
tain's memory  and  influence  in  the  Inland  Sea, 
some  of  the  Islanders  proposed  that  a  place  for  his 
burial  be  chosen  on  one  of  the  islands  within  his 
parish.  Surely  no  cemetery  could  offer  a  spot  so 
beautiful  and  so  fitting.  There,  under  the  leaning 
pines  beneath  whose  boughs  he  had  gone  to  and  fro 
on  errands  of  mercy,  beside  the  shining  waters  that 
had  made  a  path  for  his  ship,  would  his  rest  be 
sweet.  Around  him  would  be  the  islands  and  the 
villages  of  the  people  whom  he  loved,  and  who 
through  him  had  learned  the  meaning  and  the  prac- 
tice of  love.  It  would  be  a  sacred  place  to  all  the 
Island  Christians,  for  generations  to  come.  Thither 
they  would  gather  year  by  year  in  loving  pilgrim- 
age, streaming  up  from  distant  isles  to  spread 
flowers  on  his  grave,  and  to  kindle  anew  their  zeal 
for  the  cause  for  which  he  died. 

There  were  others  than  Islanders  who  hoped  that 
the  Captain  would  be  laid  to  rest  somewhere  in  the 
Inland  Sea.  Over  in  Ajnerica,  among  those  who 
knew  the  Captain  and  the  Islands,  the  wish  was  ex- 
pressed that  the  body  should  be  entrusted  fo? 


272  CAPTAIN  BIOKEL 

sepulture  to  the  Island  believers,  and  that  they 
should  spread  his  couch  on  one  of  the  Island  shores. 
He  belonged  to  them,  and  they  to  him. 

Wiser  counsels,  however,  prevailed.  Mission- 
aries of  experience,  and  thoughtful  men  among  the 
Island  Christians,  foresaw  the  danger  that  such  a 
tomb  might  eventually  be  transformed  into  a 
shrine,  where  worship  with  Shinto  rites  would  be 
paid  by  simple-minded  Island  folk,  uninstructed  in 
Christian  doctrine,  to  the  spirit  of  the  wonderful 
foreigner  who  had  brought  such  blessings  to  the 
Inland  Sea.  Such  things  have  happened  in  Japan. 
In  a  sense,  every  man  who  dies  becomes  at  death 
a  Ka7ni — if  a  Buddhist,  a  Hotoke — if  a  Shintoist, 
in  either  case  a  quasi-divine  being,  worthy  of  wor- 
shij).  An  important  part  of  a  Japanese  funeral  is 
the  worshipping  of  the  newly  deified  spirit,  by  the 
priests  and  the  friends  of  the  deceased.  In  the 
court  of  a  little  temple  near  Omachi,  a  few  years 
ago,  the  writer  was  present  at  the  funeral  service 
of  one  of  the  Omachi  Christians, — not  of  the  Bap- 
tist Church, — ^whose  Shinto  relatives  insisted  that 
the  body  have  burial  according  to  the  Shinto  rites. 
At  a  certain  point  in  the  ceremony  the  officiating 
priests  approached,  in  turuj  the  coffin,  and  ad- 
dressed the  spirit  of  the  dead  man,  presenting  offer- 
ings of  food  and  drink,  and  burning  incense  before 
the  coffin.  Then  the  relatives  and  friends  came  for- 
ward one  by  one,  and  paid  homage  to  the  dead,  with 
bowing,  clapping  of  hands  as  in  ordinary  worship, 
and  offerings  of  food  or  incense.  Even  some  of  the 
few  Christians  present  did  not  hesitate  to  show 
respect  to  the  dead  by  bowing  and  burning  incense. 
In  a  land  where  all  the  dead  are  divine,  and  every 


A  TRIOTiPHAL  FUNERAL  273 

grave  a  sacred  place,  it  is  not  strange  tliat  the 
tombs  of  tlie  Hlustrious  dead  speedily  become  actual 
places  of  worship.     Once  in  a  while  this  happens 
to  the  grave  of  a  foreigner,  as  in  the  case  of  WHl 
Adams,  the  Kentish  shipwright  who  lived  and  died 
in  Japan  a  virtual  but  honoured  prisoner,  before 
the  Kestoration,  and  who  may  be  called  the  Father 
of  the  Japanese  Navy.     At  his  tomb  high  up  on  the 
hill  overlooking  the  Yokosuka  Naval  Dock-yards, 
worship  has  been  paid,  and  a  yearly  festival  is  kept 
in  his  honour  in  a  certain  ward  in  Tokyo.     That  the 
tomb  of  Captain  Bickel,  the  one  wonderful,  up- 
standing, outstanding  personage  known  to  Inland 
Sea  chronicles,  should  in  time  be  regarded  as  a 
shrine,  where  his  spirit  would  be  worshipped  and 
his  blessing  invoked  upon  the  fishermen's  nets  and 
the  farmers'  growing  crops,  was  a  not  unreason- 
able apprehension.     There  are  thousands  of  shrines 
in  Japan  sacred  to  persons  very  much  less  worthy 
of  receiving  divine  honours  than  was  our  good 

Captain. 

The  Island  believers,  therefore,  for  the  Captain  s 
sake,  and  for  the  sake  of  the  future  of  Christianity 
among  the  Islands,  consented  to  have  the  funeral 
service  at  Kobe,  and  that  the  burial  should  take 
place  in  the  beautiful  foreign  cemetery  at  Kasu- 
gano,  near  the  city.  In  place  of  an  Island  tomb 
they  planned  a  better  memorial,  of  which  mention 
will  be  made  later. 

The  funeral  service  was  in  Kobe,  held  in  the 
Baptist  Church  at  2  p.  m.  on  May  13th.  Previous 
to  this,  at  one  o'clock,  there  had  been  held  at  the 
home  of  Dr.  Thomson  a  brief  but  impressive  service 
for  foreign  acquaintances  and  specially  intimate 


274  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

friends,  after  wliick  tlie  beautiful  casket,  accom* 
panied  hj  these  intimate  friends,  and  with  a  great 
quantity  of  floral  offerings,  had  been  borne  slowlj 
to  the  church,  with  a  company  of  students  from 
the  Yuge  Navigation  School,  in  naval  uniform,  as 
a  guard  of  honour. 

The  building  was  already  filled,  and  a  great 
crowd  was  gathered  about  the  doors,  unable  to 
enter.  Many  had  come  a  long  distance  from  the 
various  islands ;  the  Christian  workers  as  a  matter 
of  course,  but  also  many  of  the  chief  persons  among 
the  believers.  These  were  lilie  men  that  mourn 
for  a  departed  aged  mother,  and  took  part  in  the 
service  in  an  agitated  manner,  as  though  not  able 
to  realize  the  truth  of  the  suddenness  of  the  Cap- 
tain's decease.  Among  them  were  the  first  mate 
of  the  mission  vessel,  and  the  sailors  who  had  for 
many  years  been  under  the  Captain's  influence; 
besides  the  lads  from  the  Navigation  School,  who 
stood  in  sorrow  beside  the  bier.  There  w^ere  also 
present  many  members  of  the  missionary  body, 
not  only  our  own  Baptist  missionaries,  but  others, 
including  the  missionaries  working  in  Kobe,  the 
principals  of  the  Xwansai  College  and  the  Girls' 
College,  and  others. 

The  funeral  service  was  conducted  by  Pastor 
Mitamura.  Amid  an  awed  hush,  broken  only  by 
the  sound  of  subdued  sobbing,  rose  the  quiet  strains 
of  the  organ  prelude.  Dr.  Walne,  veteran  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Japan  Mission,  made  the  prayer 
of  invocation.  Then  came  the  opening  hymn,  lifted 
to  heaven  as  a  response  of  smitten  hearts  to  Him 
who  chastens  whom  He  loves.  Pastor  Takeda  read 
the  lesson  from  the  Old  Testament  and  Pastor 


A  TEIUMPHAL  FUNEEAL  275 

Ogawa  tliat  from  the  New.  Pastor  Toda,  who  of 
all  the  Island  Shepherds  had  companied  longest 
with  the  Captain,  offered  prayer.  The  personal 
history  of  the  deceased,  always  a  feature  of  a  Jap- 
anese Christian  funeral,  was  read  by  the  clerk  of 
the  Fukuin  Maru  Church,  Mr.  Watanabe  Shinichi. 
There  followed  two  funeral  addresses,  one  by  Dr. 
Thomson,  rei3resenting  Captain  BickePs  foreign 
friends,  and  one  by  Pastor  Yoshikawa,  on  behalf  of 
the  Japanese  friends.  Dr.  Thomson  spoke  in 
English,  and  his  address,  though  brief,  had  a  power 
and  pathos  born  of  long  and  intimate  friendship, 
and  produced  a  deep  impression  upon  the  English- 
speaking  part  of  the  congregation.  Pastor  Yoshi- 
kawa is  one  of  our  veteran  Christian  leaders,  a  man 
of  unusual  ability,  spirituality  and  consecration. 
His  evangelistic  activities  have  reached  all  parts 
of  Japan,  and  at  times  he  has  come  to  the  aid  of 
Captain  Bickel  in  the  Inland  Sea  Mission.  His 
address,  which  was  of  course  in  Japanese,  opened 
with  the  words  of  a  well-known  little  poem,  of 
which  only  the  general  thought  can  be  put  into 
English. 

*'As  if  yon  Star,  above  the  moorland's  height 
But  hardly  risen,  should  fall  to  setting  fleet, 
So  is  the  Teacher  rapt  from  mortal  sight, 

His  Mission  incomplete." 

After  speaking  in  the  warmest  terms  of  Captain 
Bickel  as  a  Shipmaster  and  as  a  Missionary,  and 
dwelling  upon  his  deep  love  for  the  Islanders  and 
his  ardent  devotion  to  his  work,  he  repeated  the 
lines  with  which  his  sermon  had  begun,  and  added, 
in  closing: 


276  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

''But  such  words  are,  after  all,  only  the  disappointed 
sigh  of  those  who  are  without  God,  without  Christ,  with- 
out hope.  Christ  said,  'Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you, 
except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  earth  and  die,  it 
abides  alone.  But  if  it  die  it  brings  forth  much  fruit.' 
Is  not  this  indeed  a  truth  of  deep  and  wide  significance  ? 
It  might  be  supposed  that  if  our  Lord  had  remained  long 
on  earth,  like  Confucius  or  Buddha,  He  would  have 
borne  much  fruit.  I  believe  this  to  be  exactly  contrary 
to  the  truth.  It  was  by  His  death  that  our  Lord  bore 
much  fruit.  Yes,  Captain  Bickel  himself  is  one  of  the 
fruits  borne  by  the  death  of  Christ.  It  is  a  common  say- 
ing that  'the  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the 
church.'  The  Captain's  death  will  be  the  seed  of  the 
Fukuin  Maru  Church.  The  kernel  of  wheat  has  fallen 
into  the  earth  and  died,  and  will  bear  much  fruit.  So 
what  need  to  repeat  the  sigh, 

" '  As  if  yon  Star,  above  the  moorland's  height 
But  lately  risen,  should  fall  to  setting  fleet?* 

"I  like  to  believe  that  when  he  had  closed  his  eyes  in 
his  long  sleep  it  was  with  a  song  of  victory  and  thanks- 
giving that  his  spirit  ascended  to  heaven,  rejoicing  that 
he  had  been  the  Captain  not  of  an  ordinary  secular  ship, 
but  of  the  Fukuin  Maru,  the  Ship  of  Glad  Tidings,  that 
he  had  spent  his  life  as  a  Missionary  rather  than  in 
some  worldly  calling. 

"Ah!  let  us  keep  in  memory  his  toil  and  pain  of  nine-, 
teen  years,  storm-beaten  and  rain-drenched,  enduring  in 
his  body  the  buffeting  of  winds  and  waves,  in  the  naviga- 
tion of  his  vessel,  and  in  his  spirit  the  buffeting  of  the 
stormy  passions  of  human  hearts,  as  he  sought  to  bring 
to  men  the  Gospel  of  Love. 

**The  Scripture  saith,  'Henceforth  blessed  are  the 
dead  that  die  in  the  Lord.  Yea,  saith  the  Spirit,  they 
shall  rest  from  their  labours.    Their  works  shall  follo\7 


A  TEIUMPHAL  PUNEEAL  277 

them/    Ah!    their   works    shall    follow    them!    Their 
works  shall  follow  them!'' 

At  the  close  of  this  address  the  customary  in- 
vitation was  given  to  any  present  who  might  wish 
to  add  a  word  in  token  of  regard  for  the  deceased. 
This  has  become  a  regular  feature  of  Japanese 
Christian  funerals,  and  takes  the  place  which  the 
offering  of  worship  to  the  dead  holds  in  the  Bud- 
dhist and  Shinto  burial  rites.  Each  of  those  who 
respond  to  the  invitation  advances  to  the  side  of 
the  cof&n,  where  he  stands  facing  it  rather  than 
the  audience,  and  after  gravely  bowing  as  a  mark 
of  respect  for  the  dead  reads  or  utters  a  few  terse 
sentences  of  eulogy  and  regard.  Among  those  who 
availed  themselves  of  this  opportunity  to  offer  a 
last  tribute  of  respect  were  Deacon  Miyaji  on  be- 
half of  the  Fukuin  Maru  Church;  Mr.  Murakami, 
Shepherd  of  the  Shozu  District,  representing  the 
Shepherds  of  the  Isles;  Mr.  Hirata,  probably  our 
old  friend  the  converted  boatswain,  representing 
the  of8.cers  of  the  Fukuin  Maru  Church;  Pastors 
Akagawa  and  Nakajima,  on  behalf  of  the  Japanese 
Baptist  pastors  and  evangelists  of  the  mainland; 
Mr.  Kaneko,  head  teacher  of  the  Yuge  Navigation 
School,  in  behalf  of  the  principal.  Captain  Koba- 
yashi;  Mr.  Koyal  Fisher,  representing  the  mis- 
sionary body,  and  Professor  Holtoni  and  Mr. 
Kumano,  the  faculty  and  students  of  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary. 

One  of  the  deacons  of  the  Fukuin  Maru  Church 
now  came  forward  with  a  sheaf  of  telegrams  and 
letters,  brief  messages  from  friends  of  Captain 
Bickel  and  admirers  of  his  work,  from  many  parts 


278  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

of  Japan,  -with  some  from  over-seas.  At  tlie  fu- 
neral of  any  prominent  person  many  such  mes- 
sages are  received,  to  be  either  read,  if  the  time  per- 
mit, as  a  part  of  the  service,  or,  after  the  names 
of  the  senders  have  been  mentioned,  to  be  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  family  of  the  deceased.  In  the 
present  instance  it  was  of  course  impossible  to 
read  even  all  the  names  of  those  who  showed  their 
friendship  and  interest  in  this  way.  These  names 
were  copied  into  a  book  by  a  Japanese  friend  of 
Mrs.  Bickel,  with  the  telegrams  given  in  Japanese 
and  in  English.  This  book  lies  before  the  present 
writer.  The  names  alone  would  fill  a  chapter. 
There  are  four  hundred  of  them,  of  which  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  appear  to  be  of  those  who 
sent  telegrams. 

Among  those  who  sent  these  messages  of  regret 
and  condolence  were  people  in  every  walk  of  life. 
There  were  such  leading  men  as  Dr.  Mtobe,  the 
eminent  Christian  statesman,  educationalist,  and 
social  leader ;  Mr.  Shibata,  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of 
Religions  in  the  Department  of  Education;  Mr. 
Yabushita,  Public  Procurator  of  the  Kyoto  Dis- 
trict Court;  Mr.  Kobayashi,  Chief  of  Police  at 
Arita;  Mr.  Ueda,  Chief  of  the  County  of  Toyoda; 
Mr.  Atachi,  Chief  of  the  Setoda  Salt-Inspection 
Office,  and  Mr.  Uchiyama,  Chief  of  the  Setoda 
Police.  There  were  mayors,  town  officials,  railway 
officials,  principals  of  schools.  Messages  came 
from  scores  of  churches.  Baptist  and  other;  from 
many  Sunday  schools;  from  missionaries  and 
Japanese  pastors  of  several  denominations;  from 
the  Secretary  of  the  Federation  of  Japanese 
Churches;  from  several  Girls'  Schools;  from  the 


A  TRIUMPHAL  FUNEEAL  279 

Salvation  Army,  and  so  forth.  From  all  parts  of 
tlie  Captain's  Island  Parisli,  and  from  many  places 
on  tlie  mainland  shores  of  tlie  Inland  Sea,  came 
these  brief  pregnant  messages  of  sorrow  and  love. 
Perhaps  among  all  these  there  is  none  more  touch- 
ing than  that  from  the  vessel's  crew : ''  TeugoJcu  de 
aishite  kudasai/'  "In  the  Heavenly  Land,  be 
pleased  to  love  us !  " 

Pastor  Ito,  of  Setoda,  on  behalf  of  the  bereaved 
family,  thanked  those  who  had  gathered  for  their 
presence  and  sympathy,  and  the  service,  which  had 
covered  about  three  hours,  closed  with  the  bene- 
diction, in  Japanese,  by  Dr.  Axling,  of  Tokyo. 

The  casket  being  again  placed  in  the  hearse  was 
slowly  borne  to  its  final  resting  place  at  Kasugano, 
under  escort  of  the  Navigation  School  students 
from  Yuge.  When  the  last  solemn  rites  were 
finished,  and  the  eternal  farewells  said,  the  dusk 
of  evening  was  already  falling,  but  some  of  the 
women  mourners  lingered  beside  the  grave  reluc- 
tant to  depart,  like  the  women  of  the  Gospel  at  the 
tomb  of  our  Lord.  "  Suddenly  the  twilight  chill 
fell  upon  me.  I  was  as  one  in  a  trance,  and  every- 
thing around  me  seemed  unreal.  I  only  knew  that 
sorrow  had  descended  on  my  soul.'' 

The  funeral  at  Kobe  was  followed  by  memorial 
services  at  a  number  of  other  places,  as  at  Osaka, 
Yokohama  and  Tokyo,  and  doubtless  at  Himeji,  on 
the  mainland,  and  at  the  several  evangelistic  cen- 
tres among  the  Islands.  Among  these  services, 
that  held  at  the  chief  centre,  Setoda,  was  the  most 
important.  The  day  appointed,  the  10th  of  June, 
saw  a  great  gathering  of  the  Island  Folk,  from 
Shozu  Shima  in  the  east  to  Hirado  in  the  far 


280  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

southwest, — Christians,  enquirers,  and  personal 
friends  of  Captain  Bickel.  Among  them  miglit  be 
seen  county  chiefs,  headmen  of  towns  and  villages, 
principals  of  schools,  and  other  important  Island 
personages.  Across  from  Yuge,  ten  miles  over  the 
water,  came  good  Captain  Kobayashi,  accompanied 
by  the  officers  and  students  of  his  school. 

In  the  order  of  exercises,  and  in  the  spirit  that 
prevailed,  this  service  so  much  resembled  that  held 
at  Kobe  that  no  detailed  account  is  necessary. 
The  memorial  addresses  were  made  by  Dr.  Axling 
and  Pastor  Imai,  the  converted  Buddhist  priest, 
one  of  the  early  Ftiktmi  Maru  evangelists.  Few 
foreigners  could  attend  a  meeting  at  Setoda,  but 
besides  Dr.  Axling  there  was  present  also  Mis- 
sionary Briggs,  of  Himeji,  the  long-time  associate 
and  intimate  j)ersonal  friend  of  the  Captain.  From 
his  letter  to  the  July  number  of  Gleanings  the  fol- 
lowing paragraphs  are  copied : 

* '  To  write  about  a  funeral  is  not  usually  the  task  one 
would  choose,  yet  when  I  was  asked  to  write  about  Cap- 
tain BickeFs  funeral  I  eagerly  said,  'Yes!' 

' '  It  is  not  that  I  wish  to  write  much  about  the  people 
who  came,  although  at  the  Kobe  service  so  many  Jap- 
anese and  foreigners  gathered  from  far  and  near,  that 
the  undertaker  said  it  was  the  largest  funeral  he  had 
ever  conducted,  and  at  the  FuJcuin  3Iaru  Church  service 
at  Setoda,  June  10th,  the  little  boats  kept  coming  from 
the  surrounding  and  the  distant  islands  until  over  six 
hundred  Japanese  had  gatherel  to  honour  the  memory 
of  one  who  had  once  been,  to  their  prejudiced  eyes,  a 
man  to  be  despised  and  hated  because  of  his  religion; 
but  whose  intense  earnestness  to  help  them  in  every 
way  in  things  both  small  and  great,  in  matters  of  both 


A  TEIUMPHAL  FUNEEAL  281 

body  and  spirit,  had  through  the  years  melted  the  blind 
prejudice,  till  they  had  come  to  see  and  respect  the 
Christ  spirit  revealed  in  his  quiet,  persistent,  self- 
sacrificing  service. 

*'This  very  to^vn  of  Setoda,  which  eighteen  years  ago 
agreed  in  council  to  refuse  to  let  the  Captain  a  house, 
or  to  have  any  dealings  with  the  Fiikiiin  Maru,  to-day 
has  its  streets  cleaned  and  repaired  in  preparation  for 
the  Memorial  Service,  and  sends  its  mayor,  its  chief  of 
police,  and  its  principal  of  schools,  with  carefully 
written  messages  of  sympathy  and  respect. 

''Nor  is  it  that  I  wish  to  write  about  the  flowers,  al- 
though they  were  most  beautiful  and  abundant  both  at 
Kobe  and  at  the  Island  service.  At  Kobe  there  are 
florists,  and  the  wreaths,  crosses,  anchors,  etc.,  were 
so  many  that  the  grave  became  a  great  mound  of  beauti- 
ful flowers;  but  in  the  Islands  there  are  no  florists  and 
yet  there  was  a  still  greater  profusion  of  these  marks  of 
love  and  respect.  Some  had  carefully  been  brought 
from  the  city,  many  had  been  beautifully  and  lovingly 
made  of  silk  and  fine  materials,  and  some  of  the  offer- 
ings were  great  artistic  baskets  of  fruit. 

*^  Again,  it  is  not  that  I  wish  to  write  of  the  hundreds 
of  messages  of  sympathy  that  came  from  all  parts  of  the 
Empire  and  from  all  ranks  of  society,  from  friends 
known  and  unknown;  messages  from  well-kno^vn  men 
like  Mr.  Shimada  of  the  Imperial  Department  of  Com- 
munications, Dr.  Nitobe  and  Mr.  Uchimura  Kango; 
messages  of  sorrow  from  unknown  farmers  and  school- 
boys and  schoolgirls,  who  had  come  to  know  that  they 
had  a  friend  in  Captain  Bickel. 

*'The  one  thing  I  am  eager  to  write  about  is,  The 
Spirit  of  the  Funeral. 

'^Of  course  a  funeral  is  a  place  of  mourning,  but 
though  at  Captain  Bickel's  death  I  lost  my  closest  and 
dearest  personal  friend,  I  came  away  from  the  services 
not  mourning  and  despondent,  but  enthused,  strength- 


282  CAPTAIlsr  BICKEL 

ened,  inspired ;  and  I  found  that  to  others  came  the  same 
experience. 

' '  It  was  not  of  our  planning  that  the  funeral  services 
should  have  a  certain  tone,  but  somehow  the  Captain's 
death  had  so  emphasized  to  us  all  the  things  he  had 
taught  and  lived  that  instead  of  mourning  his  going  we 
were  roused  by  his  burning  spirit  sounding  a  mighty  call 
to  us  to  follow,  as  he  had  followed  in  the  Master's  foot- 
steps, in  such  earnest  self-sacrificing  service  as  must 
speedily  win  the  world  to  Christ. 

''The  Japanese  custom  of  interested  friends  saying  a 
word  at  a  funeral  gave  the  opportunity  for  this  call  to 
come  with  special  force,  not  so  much  from  those  who  had 
been  invited  to  make  the  funeral  addresses,  but  as  a 
spontaneous  cry  from  the  hearts  of  the  ordinary  Chris- 
tians, who  had  been  led,  taught,  influenced  by  intimate 
contact  with  him,  in  life  and  work. 

' '  It  was  the  triumph  of  his  spirit  over  the  incident  of 
his  death  that  made  his  funeral  a  call  for  volunteers  for 
the  firing-line;  that  put  new  enthusiasm  for  a  life  of 
self-sacrifice  into  every  heart. 

''It  was  not  the  eloquence  of  the  funeral  addresses, 
but  the  consciousness  of  the  Captain's  influence  in  their 
own  hearts  and  lives  that  brought  from  the  Island  Chris- 
tians such  words  as  these: 

"  'The  Captain's  death  is  to  be  the  seed  of  a  mighty 
revival  in  the  Inland  Sea.' 

"  'The  Captain's  word  to  me  was,  not,  See  how  much 
we  have  already  done,  but,  Forward!  Forward! 
Greater  service!     Greater^ victories ! ' 

"  'Instead  of  the  Captain's  work  being  ended,  there 
must  soon  be  a  thousand  Captains  in  the  Inland  Sea; 
every  Christian  must  be  one.' 

' '  The  spirit  of  the  services  was  the  same  both  in  Kobe 
and  at  Setoda,  and  it  was  so  strong  and  genuine  that 
Mrs.  Bickel  could  not  but  thank  God  even  through  her 
tears,  and  we  were  led  to  recall  what  one  Japanese 


A  TEIUMPHAL  FUNEEAL  283 

Christian   quaintly   wrote:    *  Perhaps    God   will   make 
Captain  Bickel's  death  the  greatest  work  of  his  life.' 

*^It  is  a  striking  proof  of  the  spiritual  greatness  of 
Captain  Bickel  ^s  life  and  character  that  at  these  funeral 
services,  and  continually,  to  those  close  to  him  in  friend- 
ship and  work,  the  consciousness  of  the  lasting  blessing 
that  is  ours  in  having  known  him  as  a  friend  and  fellow- 
worker  triumphs  over  the  sense  of  loss/' 

In  his  memorial  article  on  Captain  Bickel  in  the 
Japan  Evangelist  for  July,  Mr.  Briggs,  after  re- 
ferring to  the  wide  reach  of  Captain  BickeFs  in- 
fluence as  shown  by  the  messages  received  from 
leading  men  in  all  Tvalks  of  life,  adds : 

**  Still  more  precious  than  all  this  was  the  revelation 
of  the  depth  of  his  spiritual  influence,  by  the  members 
of  the  Fukuin  Mam  Church,  at  the  funeral  service  at 
Setoda.  The  note  of  mourning  was  hardly  to  be  heard 
at  a  service  lasting  five  hours  and  in  which  perhaps 
fifty  people  took  part. 

**He  had  been  so  truly  their  spiritual  leader  that  he 
was  still  leading  them.  Though  serving  them  in  ways 
innumerable,  the  spirit's  call  to  spirit  was  in  them  all. 
His  life  had  been  inspiration,  and  his  death  but  empha- 
sized it.  He  had  lived  leading  them  in  loving  service 
and  sacrifice,  and  he  died  pointing  the  way,  and  these 
simple  hearts  forgot  to  mourn  in  their  eagerness  to 
follow  him,  as  he  had  followed  Christ. ' ' 

**He  being  dead  yet  speaketJi.'* 


tt 


XXV 

AFTEE-GLOW 


<<- 


Terhaps  the  most  striking  testimony  to  the 
spiritual  power  of  Captain  Bickel  is  the  three- 
fold experience  that  his  death  seems  to  have 
brought  to  the  wide  circle  of  his  friends  and 
acquaintances,  both  Japanese  and  Foreign. 
First,  sorrow  for  our  great  loss,  then  gratitude 
for  having  known  such  a  character,  and  then  a 
deep  desire  to  live  more  earnest  lives  of  sacri- 
ficial service.  These  are  not  lessons  which 
some  one  draws  from  his  life ;  they  are  real  ex- 
periences forced  into  the  heart  that  remembers 
Captain  Bickel." — Rev.  F.  C.  Briggs. 


H 


E  being  dead  yet  speaketh."  The  words 
possess  an  uncommon  pertinence  when 
applied  to  Captain  Bickel. 
Into  what  activities  his  glorified  spirit  has 
entered  in  the  invisible  world  we  need  not  conjec- 
ture. It  will  not  be  strange  if  many  of  his  Island 
friends,  with  their  religious  conceptions  coloured 
by  the  ideas  of  Shintoism,  think  of  him  as  still 
closely  connected  with  the  Islands  and  the  Island 
People,  a  sort  of  Patron  Saint  and  Guardian  Angel 
of  the  Isles  of  the  Inner  and  Outer  Seas.    In  Japan 

284 


AFTER-GLOW  285 

the  spirits  of  the  dead  are  not  thought  of  as  far 
away  from  the  scenes  where  they  have  lived.  They 
are  invisible  but  not  absent.  They  have  a  share  in 
the  family  life.  They  are  a  corporate  part  of  the 
community.  They  work  together  with  the  living  for 
the  national  welfare.  In  the  day  of  battle  the 
souls  of  those  who  have  fallen  in  earlier  wars 
mingle  with  the  soldiers  on  the  battle-field,  inspir- 
ing them  to  nobler  heroism.  Doubtless  in  the 
thought  of  many  of  the  simple-hearted  Island  vil- 
lagers the  tall  foreign  Captain  whom  they  had 
learned  to  love  and  honour  is  still  with  them  in  his 
spiritual  nature.  He  watches  over  the  little  Mis- 
sion Vessel  as  she  sails  by  reef  and  shoal ;  he  hears 
the  chantey  of  the  Seven  Sailors  as  they  bring  home 
the  anchor;  he  encourages  the  Shepherds  of  the 
Isles  as  they  labour  for  their  flocks.  Who  shall  say 
that  behind  these  naive  fancies  there  is  no  element 
of  fact?  One  cannot  imagine  that  ardent  spirit, 
with  its  passion  for  service,  fully  content  even  amid 
the  blessedness  of  the  heavenly  state  unless  a  part 
of  that  felicity  consisted  in  sharing  the  activi- 
ties of  the  Divine  Spirit  on  behalf  of  sinful  men. 
And  if  personality  and  character  and  memory 
persist  beyond  the  grave  we  know  that  the  Island 
Folk  will  continue  to  share  his  love  and  interest. 
The  request  of  the  orphaned  crew  was  not  a 
vain  desire,  "  Please  love  us  yet,  in  the  Heavenly 
Land." 

Our  dead  shall  live  1    There  are  no  dead. 

We  yet  shall  meet  them  1    Nay,  they  stand, 
E  'en  when  our  bitterest  prayers  are  said, 
E  'en  when  our  hottest  tears  are  shed, 
Hard  at  our  hand* 


286  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

Our  humble  heartglow  shineth  yet 

Through  those  wide  glories  they  have  won 
Which  set  to  shadow  star  or  sun ; 
'Tis  not  in  heaven  that  friends  forget, 
We  hold  them  by  love's  blameless  debt 
And  benison. 

But  whatever  activities  may  occupy  our  Captain's 
glorified  spirit,  whether  on  behalf  of  his  beloved 
Island  Parish,  or  of  the  world-wide  Kingdom,  or 
of  other  worlds  than  this, — and  the  writer  has  no 
desire  to  be  wise  above  what  is  written, — it  is  safe 
to  predict  that  the  memory  and  influence  of  the 
Captain's  life  will  long  persist.  In  this  sense  at 
least,  his  soul  goes  marching  on,  in  the  spiritual 
life  and  progress  of  Japan,  and  especially  in  that 
of  the  Inland  Sea  Mission. 

Some  idea  of  the  abiding  impression  the  Cap- 
tain's life  has  made  may  be  gained  from  the  tone  of 
the  many  Appreciations  and  Memorial  Articles 
which  appeared  in  the  press  after  his  death,  both 
in  American  periodicals  and  in  those  issued  in 
Japan.  It  would  be  possible  to  publish  a  large 
Memorial  Volume  composed  exclusively  of  such 
articles. 

Dr.  Franklin,  on  behalf  of  the  Board  of  the 
Missionary  Society  under  whose  direction  Captain 
Bickel  laboured,  writes : 

''Captain  Bickel  was  a  character  of  heroic  propor- 
tions, in  whom  the  highest  ideals  of  missionary  service 
were  fulfilled  to  an  extraordinary  degree.  His  death 
means  an  incalculable  loss.  While  his  work  was  unique 
in  several  ways,  his  own  personality,  rather  than  the 
peculiar  conditions  under  which  he  laboured,  gave  force 


AFTEE-GLOW  287 

to  his  efforts.  He  was  always  the  sturdy  seaman,  and 
able  to  command,  but  at  the  same  time  unostentatious 
and  ready  to  serve  the  most  lowly.  He  lived  in  closest 
fellowship  with  those  to  whom  he  ministered.  *To 
minister,  and  not  to  be  ministered  unto'  was  a  passion 
of  his  life.  In  him  were  found  the  gifts  and  graces 
that  make  truly  great  missionaries,  and  which  won  for 
him  the  high  place  he  held  in  the  affection  of  missionaries 
of  every  denomination  and  in  the  confidence  of  Jap- 
anese of  every  class.  Missionaries  of  all  societies  will 
feel  that  the  Christian  movement  in  Japan  has  sustained 
a  great  loss;  government  officials  will  consider  that  an 
influential  factor  in  the  promotion  of  international  good- 
will has  been  removed;  a  multitude  of  the  Japanese 
people  on  the  Islands  of  the  Inland  Sea  will  be  grief- 
stricken;  many  in  America  will  join  the  Board  of  Man- 
agers of  the  Foreign  Mission  Society  in  personal  sorrow. ' ' 

As  indicating  the  impression  made  by  our  Cap- 
tain on  his  missionary  fellow-workers  may  be 
quoted  the  editorial  in  Gleanings ,  the  organ  of  the 
Baptist  Missions  in  Japan,  in  the  memorial  number 
following  the  Captain's  death : 

*'Our  gallant  Captain  has  cleared  the  Bar,  and 
entered  the  Fair  Haven  of  the  Far  Country. 

**For  nineteen  years  he  engaged  in  a  valiant  fight 
against  the  powers  of  evil  that  darken  this  fair  land. 
Literally  he  gave  his  life  for  the  Island  people  of  the 
Inland  Sea,  for  'he  spared  not  his  own  life,  but  gave  it 
freely'  that  he  might  make  known  to  them  the  Way  of 
Life  Eternal. 

**What  his  guerdon?  To  be  accounted  the  disciple  of 
the  living  Christ. 

''What  his  decoration?  The  Cross  of  his  Master  ever 
borne  about  in  his  body. 


288  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 


((■ 


'What  his  reward?  A  blessed  company  rescued  from 
sin  *s  darkness  and  despair,  to  shine  as  stars  in  his  crown 
of  rejoicing,  through  all  eternity. 

''What  his  monument  in  the  land  for  which  he  died? 
His  name  written  on  the  tablets  of  the  hearts  of  the 
people  who  are  working  to  establish  a  'religion  pure  and 
undefiled'  in  their  beloved  country.'' 

The  editor  of  KyoJio,  the  Japanese  Baptist 
Weekly,  in  the  issue  of  May  24th,  speaking  in 
behalf  of  the  Baptist  ministers  and  churches  of 
the  mainland,  writes  as  follows : 

**Our  Captain  L.  W.  Bickel,  who  for  many  years  as 
Captain  of  the  Mission  Ship,  Fukiiin  Mam,  has  been 
engaged  in  the  arduous  labour  of  Island  evangelization, 
a  man  burning  with  evangelistic  zeal  to  the  marrow  of 
the  bones  of  his  powerful  frame,  fell  asleep  on  the  11th 
day  of  May.  We  wish  to  humbly  express  to  his  wife 
and  family,  to  the  Christian  workers  connected  with  the 
Fukuin  Maru  Church,  to  all  the  brothers  and  sisters  in 
the  membership  of  that  church,  and  to  all  the  friends  of 
the  deceased,  our  heartfelt  sympathy  and  condolence. 
Our  Baptist  Church  has  lost  a  model  Evangelist,  the 
Christian  Church  as  a  whole  has  lost  a  modern  Apostle. 
Japan  has  lost  a  Father  whose  love  for  her  and  her 
people  was  greater  than  that  of  those  born  on  her  own 
soil.  But  surely  the  peoples  of  the  Kingdom  of  God 
receive  him  in  his  glorified  being  with  songs  of  wel- 
come!" 

From  among  a  number  of  tributes  of  apprecia- 
tion from  representatives  of  various  Christian  or- 
ganizations in  Japan  that  of  Mr.  Galen  Fisher, 
American  Secretary  in  Tokyo  of  the  Japanese 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  may  be  quoted  as  reflecting  the  uni- 


AFTER-GLOW  289 

versal  sentiment  of  the  missionary  body.     Mr. 
Fisher  writes: 

**  Captain  Bickel  awakened  in  me  strong  admiration 
and  confidence,  although  I  had  only  three  or  four  chances 
to  meet  him  intimately.  I  honoured  his  fearless  devo- 
tion to  his  own  convictions,  matched  by  his  knightly 
courtesy  toward  those  who  differed  with  him ;  his  intense 
sense  of  the  urgency  of  bringing  the  Gospel  to  men, 
balanced  by  a  rare  common  sense  and  humour  and  tact. 

'^His  Inland  Sea  work  was  far  more  than  a  pictur- 
esque novelty;  it  presented  one  of  the  finest  examples 
in  missionary  annals  of  a  strong  leader  so  merging  his 
personality  with  his  native  colleagues  as  to  make  common 
men  rise  clear  beyond  themselves,  and  display  a  loyalty 
and  unity  and  passion  for  souls  akin  to  his  own.  I  join 
with  many  others  in  thanking  God  for  his  character 
and  work.'* 

One  of  the  most  interesting  memorial  articles 
published  in  the  Kyolio  is  from  the  pen  of  one  of 
the  present  Shepherds  of  the  Isles,  Pastor  Shibata, 
Bishop  of  the  Open  Sea  Islands.  He  tells  us  how 
he  came  to  be  associated  with  the  Captain,  and 
what  impression  was  made  on  his  mind  by  ten 
years  of  fellowship  with  the  Captain  in  Christian 
work : 


<(- 


'Immediately  on  arriving  at  Arima  I  went  to  the 
Sugimoto  Hotel,  and  there  for  the  first  time  I  met  Cap- 
tain Bickel.''  (The  Captain  was  attending  the  Annual 
Mission  Conference,  and  had  sent  request  by  telegraph 
to  Mr.  Shibata  to  meet  him  there.)  **He  said  little,  but 
with  his  own  big  hand  warmly  clasping  mine,  and  speak- 
ing in  a  wonderfully  kind  and  humble  manner,  he  in- 
vited me  to  take  a  part  in  the  Island  work.  *Do  please 
come, '  he  urged,    I  felt  truly  unworthy  such  a  reception. 


290  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

''I  conceived  at  once  a  strong  conviction  that  here  was 
no  ordinary  missionary,  and  the  desire  awoke  to  become 
a  companion  in  Christian  work  with  a  man  so  ardent, 
so  loving  and  so  noble.  I  at  once  formed  my  decision 
and  began  my  labours  as  an  evangelist  among  the 
Islands.  Thenceforward,  during  ten  years,  he  patiently 
bore  with  my  inefficiency  and  the  shallowness  of  my 
nature,  bestowing  on  me  his  loving  companionship. 
With  him,  missionary  and  helper  were  on  the  same  foot- 
ing, and  from  the  very  first  he  made  no  difference  be- 
tween me  and  those  who  had  for  a  considerable  time 
been  associated  with  him.  As  a  father  with  a  son,  or  as 
an  elder  brother  with  a  younger,  he  discussed  every 
matter  with  me  frankly,  whether  great  or  small.  Truly 
it  was  of  his  wide  heart,  wide  as  the  sea  is  wide,  that  he 
counted  me  worthy  a  share  in  his  vast  enterprise,  over- 
lookmg  my  failings  and  making  the  most  of  what  in  me 
was  good.  While  I  owe  this  privilege  of  a  share  in  that 
undertaking  to  the  goodness  of  God,  I  feel  that  I  owe  it 
also  to  the  Captain's  profound  love;  and  for  this  I  lack 
words  to  express  my  gratitude. 

''No  one  once  caught  on  the  hook  of  the  Captain's 
loving  kindness  could  escape.  Such  might  has  the  love 
whose  source  is  in  God.  At  one's  first  meeting  with 
him,  indeed,  he  appeared  of  a  somewhat  fierce  counte- 
nance. His  manner,  too,  was  abrupt ;  he  did  not  spend 
time  on  every-day  conversation,  but  came  at  once  to  the 
business  in  hand.  This  was  sometimes  rather  embarrass- 
ing, to  be  sure.  But  once  he  came  to  know  and  trust  a 
man  he  never  forsook  him  nor  forgot  him. 

*'He  was  unwilling  to  leave  any  duty  half  done,  but 
pushed  everything  to  a  finish,  regardless  of  difficulty. 
No  matter  how  others  might  seek  to  dissuade,  his  ardent 
love  cried,  *  Whatever  is  possible,  let  me  do!'  How 
many  have  been  caught  on  this  hook  of  love  and  saved, 
I  know  not. 

"All  who  had  any  acquaintance  with  Captain  Bickel, 


AFTER-GLOW  291 

and  especially  his  associates  in  the  work,  were  pro- 
foundly impressed  by  his  strenuous  activity.  He  was 
extremely  careful,  it  is  true,  about  matters  of  hygiene, 
especially  of  diet,  and  frequently  counselled  us  also  in 
such  lines,  urging  us  to  allow  ourselves  plenty  of  food 
and  sleep,  when  this  was  possible.  This  advice  was  not 
only  prompted  by  kindness,  but  also,  I  believe,  by  the 
wish  that  we  might  be  thoroughly  prepared  for  the  work 
ahead.  When  the  time  for  action  came  he  would  labour 
day  after  day,  without  sign  of  fatigue,  from  morning  till 
late  at  night.  And  however  brief  the  time  left  for 
sleep  v/hen  he  finally  sought  his  berth,  his  mind  con- 
tinued to  keep  the  run  of  things  on  the  ship,  and  he 
would  next  day  remind  the  sailors  that  during  a  certain 
watch  the  ship's  bell  had  been  struck  so  many  minutes 
late.  Thanks  to  this  attention  to  minute  details  he 
navigated  the  vessel  twenty  years  without  disaster. 
Even  professional  navigators  were  deeply  impressed  by 
his  thoroughness. 

**In  the  evangelistic  work,  what  with  making  prepara- 
tion for  places  of  meeting,  making  outlines  of  the  ad- 
dresses, selecting  the  lantern  slides,  and  other  such 
duties,  he  frequently  denied  himself  even  time  to  eat. 
We  weaker  ones,  too,  spurred  on  by  such  zeal,  laboured 
each  in  his  own  district,  and  found  constant  success 
in  our  work. 

'*But  even  in  his  busiest  times  the  Captain  did  not 
forget  to  pray.  There  might  be  no  uttered  words,  but 
with  silent  prayer  he  went  forward  with  his  task.  This 
one  might  call  the  prayer  of  activity."  At  this  point 
Mr.  Shibata,  by  way  of  an  illustration  of  the  Captain's 
arduous  life,  describes  in  detail  the  activities  of  two 
days  and  nights  spent  at  the  lid  group,  during  the  Cap- 
tain's  last  visit  to  the  Deep  Sea  Islands;  and  then  con- 
cludes his  article  as  follows: 

*'Ah,  well,  never  again  shall  I  witness  that  ardent 
enthusiasm  to  serve  God  and  man  with  body  and  spirit, 


292  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

by  reason  of  which,  even  after  days  of  strennons  toil, 
and  while  he  stood  on  the  bridge  directing  the  vessel's 
course,  his  heart  was  still  filled  with  concern  for  the 
salvation  of  individual  souls,  or  with  plans  for  the  de- 
velopment of  the  work  of  his  mission." 

In  the  Kyoho  of  May  24th  is  a  long  article  en- 
titled, "  A  Sorrowful  Journey."  The  writer,  who 
uses  a  nom  de  plume,  is  evidently  a  Christian  man 
of  education  and  culture,  and  a  warm  friend  of 
Captain  Bickel.  His  home  is  in  Tokyo  and  in  his 
narrative  he  takes  us  with  him  to  Kobe,  describes 
the  funeral  services  held  there,  and  brings  us  back 
with  him  to  the  Capital.  The  very  prolixity  of  the 
article  reveals  the  profound  impression  made  on 
his  mind  by  the  Captain's  death,  and  scattered 
through  it  are  passages  which  illustrate  the  in- 
fluence which  the  Captain  exerted,  and  continues  to 
exert,  over  the  hearts  of  many  outside  the  Island 
communities.  Speaking  of  the  journey  to  Kobe 
he  says: 

**  Through  the  car  windows  the  lights  gleamed  on  the 
falling  rain,  and  we  experienced  that  feeling  of  melan- 
choly which  a  spring  night  inspires.  Presently  my  com- 
panion took  from  his  valise  Rokwa's  *In  the  Shadow  of 
Death,'  and  I  from  mine  Tagore's  *The  Gardener.' 

"'The  Wise  Man  warns  us  that  I^ife  is  but  a  dew-drop  on 

the  lotus  leaf/ 
"  *  None  lives  forever,  Brother,  and  nothing  lasts  for  long.' 
"'Life   droops   toward   its   sunset,   to   be    drowned   in   the 

golden  shadows.' 

''These  lines  alone  remained  strangely  echoing 
through  my  mind.    At  the  same  time  the  Captain's 


AFTEE-GLOW  293 

image  came  floating  before  me,  and  my  other  self,  which 
refused  to  accept  the  fact  of  his  death,  took  possession 
of  me.  *That  powerful  frame,'  I  mused,  *  those  pierc- 
ing but  kindly  blue  eyes,  that  prominent  nose,  that  firm 
mouth,  have  they  returned  to  the  clay,  to  be  seen  no 
more?  Shall  I  hear  never  more  his  earnest  words  of 
counsel  or  reproof?  Nay,  'tis  false!  The  Captain  is 
not  dead!' 

**This  sorrowful  journey  has  meant  much  more  to  me 
than  any  pleasant  trip  could  have  meant.  *  Blessed  are 
those  that  weep  now  I '  Some  one  says,  *  Heaven  is  high. 
The  prudent  man  gazes  upon  the  earth.'  Moses  has 
ascended  to  heaven.  I  lay  down  my  pen  with  the  earnest 
hope  that  Joshua  may  appear." 

Thine  is  the  night.    The  grave 

May  cast  its  shade 
Where  the  Dear  Dead  are  laid. 

All  unafraid 
We  lean  upon  Thy  Promise,  Strong  to  Save  I 

To  hearts  forlorn 
Thou  gavest  the  Easter  Morn. 
Death's  murk  shall  stars  afford. 
Thine  is  the  Night,  0  Lord. 


XXVI 

THE  VICTORY  OF  LOVE 

THE  tributes  of  affection  and  appreciation 
wliiclL  were  laid,  with,  the  spring  blossoms, 
upon  the  Captain's  casket,  and  of  which,  a 
few  of  the  most  striking  have  been  copied  into  the 
preceding  chapter,  together  with  the  deep  feeling 
shown  at  the  time  of  the  funeral  and  memorial  serv- 
ices, both  by  the  many  hundreds  assembled  and  by 
a  host  of  others  who  could  not  be  present  in  per- 
son, are  in  themselves  sufficient  evidence  of  the 
large  place  which  he  had  won  for  himself  in  a  great 
multitude  of  human  hearts,  and  in  gaining  for  him- 
self had  gained  also  for  his  Message,  and  for  his 
Lord,  whose  Spirit  wrought  within  him. 

If  one  shall  ask  what  is  the  secret  of  the  Cap- 
tain's influence,  it  may  be  answered  that  several 
elements  enter  into  it.  We  have  had  passing 
glimpses  of  these  in  the  course  of  our  story,  but 
they  will  repay  a  more  careful  and  extended  con- 
sideration. 

Missionary  Briggs,  speaking  from  a  long  and 
close  acquaintance  with  Captain  Bickel  and  the 
Inland  Sea  Mission,  said,  a  few  years  ago,  after 
referring  to  the  charm  of  the  Little  White  Ship,  the 
winsome  personality  of  her  Skipper,  and  the  at- 
tractiveness of  his  Message : 

"I  have  seen  the  work  intimately  and  thought 

294 


THE  VICTOEY  OF  LOVE  295 

much  about  it,  and  the  human  elements  that  seem 
to  me  to  weigh  most  in  the  bringing  of  this  success 
are,  first,  the  Captain's  deej)  practical  faith  that 
he  is  called  to  the  work  by  the  Master  and  there- 
fore it  cannot  fail ;  next,  an  enthusiasm  in  and  for 
the  work  that  keeps  hmi  everlastingly  at  it;  next, 
his  intense  conviction  that  true  service  must  cost : 
this  underlies  even  the  minor  details  of  the  work, 
nothing  is  too  small  to  take  jiains  with.  Another 
factor  is  the  Captain's  definite  faith  in  the  Bible. 
His  teaching  is  not  modified  to  Aveakness  by  mod- 
ern doubts,  but  with  insistent  force  he  jjresents 
the  foundation  truths  of  salvation  in  the  simplest 
forms.  This  clear-cut  faith,  backed  by  a  forceful 
personality,  makes  for  a  definiteness  in  aim  and 
methods  among  all  the  workers,  and  a  resulting 
enthusiasm  and  oneness." 

To  this  the  present  writer  wishes  to  add  some 
thoughts  based  on  his  own  less  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  Island  work. 

Captain  Bickel  was  a  man  of  marked  natural 
ability.  Tall  and  strong  was  he,  able  to  take 
heavy  burdens  on  his  broad  shoulders.  Swift  and 
sure  was  he  in  thought  and  movement,  sound  in 
judgment,  tireless  in  effort,  a  man  to  bring  things 
to  pass.  As  a  sailor  he  speedily  rose  to  the  highest 
positions  in  the  mercantile  marine.  As  a  business 
man  he  excelled  as  organizer  and  administrator. 
As  a  missionary  pioneer  he  had  sagacity  to  lay  his 
plans  wide  and  long,  and  strength  and  courage  to 
push  them  toward  fulfillment.  When  problems  of 
mission  policy  were  to  be  solved  none  surpassed 
him  in  keenness  of  analysis  and  in  practical  wis- 
dom.    In  our  Annual  Conferences,  or  in  the  ses- 


296  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

sions  of  our  Keference  Committee,  his  modestly 
and  thoughtfully  expressed  opinions  were  of  the 
utmost  value.  He  was  a  master  of  the  art  of 
speech,  and  his  occasional  writings  and  addresses 
were  eagerly  welcomed  for  the  raciness  and  aptness 
of  his  language,  and  the  freshness  and  vigour  of  his 
thought.  His  style  is  quite  inimitable:  fresh, 
breezy,  with  a  tang  like  that  of  a  wind  from  the 
salt  sea.  Amid  the  rather  prosy  accounts  of 
regular  station  work  in  our  Japan  Baptist  Annual 
the  Fukuin  Maru  reports  are  like  streams  spark- 
ling in  a  desert.  The  ^^  Log  of  the  Fukuin  Maru  ^' 
has  the  hall-mark  of  real  literature.  The  papers 
read  by  him  before  large  missionary  gatherings,  at 
Karuizawa  and  in  Tokyo,  upon  such  topics  as 
country  evangelization  and  moral  conditions  in 
Eural  Japan  were  acknowledged  to  be  master- 
pieces. Whether  as  captain  of  an  ocean  liner,  ad- 
ministrator of  a  big  business,  i)ioneer  of  a  great 
movement,  or  in  the  field  of  literature,  he  was 
fitted  to  achieve  success.  He  was  a  strong  man, 
as  men  count  strength,  winning  from  all  responsive 
souls  that  instant  admiration  and  confidence  which 
a  man  of  real  power  naturally  inspires.  The  word 
hero  is  a  great  word,  and  greatly  overworked,  but 
in  our  Captain  we  realized  that  we  had  a  true 
hero,  strong  to  labour  and  to  suffer,  facing  dangers 
and  enemies  with  a  smiling  courage,  meeting  insult 
and  injustice  with  a  serene  patience,  ready  to 
grapple  with  difftcult  situations,  and  to  "carry 
on  "  in  a  forlorn  hope.  None  of  our  gallant  soldier 
lads  enduring  the  hardships  of  a  winter  campaign 
in  the  trenches  of  Flanders,  or  facing  death  "  some- 
where in  France,"  can  boast  a  finer  heroism  than 


THE  VICTOEY  OF  LOVE  297 

that  our  Captain  showed  when  with  a  body  weak- 
ened with  disease  and  racked  with  pain,  he  set  his 
teeth  together  and  fought  his  way  through  the 
gales  of  winter  and  the  hostilities  of  men  toward 
the  goal  which  God  had  set  before  him. 

Captain  Bickel  was  a  man  of  deep  piety,  and 
the  fountains  of  his  strength  were  in  the  Almighty. 
One  could  not  be  in  his  company  without  realizing 
that  he  was  a  man  of  God.  Sane  and  practical, 
and  with  a  saving  sense  of  humour,  there  was  noth- 
ing akin  to  ostentation  in  his  religious  life,  no  taint 
of  asceticism  or  fanaticism,  no  morbid  aloofness 
from  the  wholesome  interests  of  life.  But  he 
walked  with  God,  and  to  him  God  was  an  insepa- 
rable Friend  and  Helper.  Not  always  able,  amid 
his  crowding  duties,  to  observe  times  and  places 
for  secret  prayer,  he  lifted  his  heart  to  God  as 
he  tramped  the  granite  hills  or  stood  on  the  bridge 
of  his  little  vessel.  His  favourite  oratory  was  the 
Fukuin  Maru's  quarter-deck,  and  there,  under  the 
stars  or  under  the  blue  heaven,  he  held  communion 
with  Him  who  is  invisible,  and  won  new  wisdom 
and  strength  for  his  arduous  task. 

Captain  Bickel  was  genuinely  humble,  as  is  the 
way  with  the  spiritually  strong.  Humility  is  own 
sister  to  piety,  and  in  the  presence  of  God  one  learns 
not  to  think  of  himself  more  highly  than  he  ought 
to  think.  While  aware  of  the  importance  of  the 
task  to  which  he  had  been  called,  and  confident 
that  he  had  been  divinely  guided  in  the  methods  he 
had  adopted,  he  also  appreciated  fully  the  devotion 
and  ability  of  his  fellow-missionaries,  and  the 
value  of  their  work  to  the  Kingdom  as  a  whole. 
He  often  hesitated  to  urge  upon  the  Mission,  or 


298  CAPTAIlSr  BICKEL 

the  Home  Board,  the  needs  of  his  own  field,  lest 
the  resources  at  the  disposal  of  others  should  be 
depleted.  In  his  daily  life  he  could  "  condescend 
to  men  of  low  estate,"  meeting  the  most  lowly  as 
friends  and  brothers,  but  it  never  occurred  to  him 
that  it  was  a  "  condescension."  He  lived  close  to 
Him  who  was  meek  and  lowly  in  heart.  He  was  a 
true  noJ)lemsin,  a  real  geutlcniixny  knightly,  courte- 
ous, chivalrous.  Though  a  loyal  American,  he  was 
still  more  a  citizen  of  the  world,  with  that  cosmo- 
politan vision,  that  true  Christian  democratic 
spirit,  which  recognizes  the  value  and  dignity  of 
human  nature,  regardless  of  race,  colour  or  out- 
ward condition.  The  simple-minded  Island  vil- 
lagers found  that  there  was  no  middle  wall  of 
partition  between  him  and  them,  and  that  he  could 
be  as  frankly  intimate  with  the  humblest  farmer 
and  fisherman  as  with  those  who  sat  in  the  seats 
of  the  mighty. 

Above  all,  Captain  BickeFs  work  was  done  with 
a  heart  of  love.  His  strength  was  not  like  that  of 
the  Super-man,  who  is  strong  for  himself,  but  like 
that  of  the  God-man, 

"Strong  Son  of  God,  Immortal  Love/' 

who  is  strong  for  others.  There  was  with  his 
strength  a  wonderful  gentleness  and  tenderness. 
He  was  conspicuous  for  his  kindly  spirit  and 
thoughtfulness  for  others.  The  distressed,  the 
despised,  the  weak,  the  poor,  the  widow  and  the 
orphan — of  all  such  he  made  the  cause  his  own. 
If  one  needed  a  helping  hand,  literally  or  figura- 
tively, his  was  instantly  outstretched.  Whether  in 
his  relations  with  his  fellow-missionaries,  or  with 


THE  VICTOEY  OF  LOVE  299 

Ms  Japanese  associates,  or  witk  tlie  Islanders  of 
his  wide  parish,  he  was  invariably,  spontaneously, 
sympathetic  and  helpful.  He  came  to  be  "  friend, 
philosopher  and  guide  "  to  thousands  of  people  who 
brought  to  him  their  troubles  and  perplexities. 
He  was  in  Japan  not  to  be  ministered  to  but  to 
minister.  He  went  about  doing  good.  His  life 
radiated  kindness  as  a  lamp  radiates  light. 

Such  kindness  and  sympathy  was  a  new  phe- 
nomenon to  the  Island  Folk.  It  was  a  revelation  to 
them  of  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  of  the  heart  of 
Christ.     He 

*' Whose  smile  was  love  by  Galilee'' 

manifested  Himself  on  the  Island  shores  in  the 
person  of  this  apostle,  in  the  warm  tones  of  his 
voice,  in  the  earnest  kindness  of  his  gaze,  in  a  daily 
ministry  to  all  who  were  in  trouble.  They  had 
never  known,  nor  imagined,  love  after  this  fashion. 
When  Jesus  was  about  to  send  Peter  forth  upon 
his  ministry  He  made  the  examination  for  ordi- 
nation very  brief.  There  was  but  one  question, 
and  it  was  three  times  put :  "  Simon,  son  of  Jonas, 
lovest  thou  me?  "  The  first  requisite  for  a  suc- 
cessful ministry  is  Love.  The  second  requisite  is 
Love.  The  third  requisite  is  Love.  Everything 
else  is  the  hands  or  tools  with  which  Love  works. 
At  the  heart  of  the  work  of  the  Fukuin  Maru  has 
been  a  deep  and  constant  love — love  first  of  all  for 
the  loving  Christ,  and  with  that  a  love  for  lost  and 
erring  men  for  whom  He  died.  So  long  as  the 
world  stands  Love  is  Conqueror.  Love,  and  only 
love,  wins  love,  and  where  love  is  won  all  is  won. 
The  method  of  the  Gospel,  the  strategy  of  the 


300  CAPTAIN  BICKEL 

Cross,  is  psychologically  correct.  The  Fukuin 
Maru  Mission  has  been,  all  things  considered, 
amazingly  successful,  and  the  secret  of  that  suc- 
cess has  not  been  chiefly  the  charm  of  the  white 
Gospel  Ship;  nor  the  sagacity,  energy  and  enthu- 
siasm with  which  the  work  has  been  prosecuted; 
nor  the  commanding  personality  of  the  leader ;  nor 
even  the  winsomeness  of  the  Message  put  into  the 
language  of  the  lips,  but  the  love  which  has  been 
behind  and  within  all.  It  is  the  love  of  Christ, 
glowing  through  the  heart  of  the  Captain,  and 
showing  in  all  the  work  of  the  vessel,  that  has  won 
the  love  of  the  Islanders,  and  with  that  the  Island- 
ers themselves.  They  have  seen  in  the  Captain, 
and  in  the  Shepherds  of  the  Isles  who  have  caught 
his  spirit,  what  love  is  in  the  Christian  sense,  and 
that  is  leading  them  on  to  a  comprehension  of  the 
love  of  God. 

Captain  Bickel  has  not  lived  in  vain,  nor  has  he 
died  in  vain.  Such  lives  and  such  deaths  as  his  are 
precious  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord.  They  who  live 
the  life  of  love,  and  through  love  lay  down  their 
lives,  shall  surely,  like  the  Lord  of  Love  Himself, 
who  loved  us  and  gave  Himself  for  us,  see  of  the 
travail  of  their  souls  and  be  satisfied. 

For  aU  the  Day,  O  God, 

We  give  Thee  praise, 
Blessing  and  laud  always, 

Glad  with  Thy  Gaze, 
How  rough  soe'er  the  roads  our  feet  have  trod. 

For  night  and  peace 
Eve's  hush  and  Death's  release, 
And  Endless  Day  restored. 
We  give  Thee  praise,  O  Lord. 


THE  YICTOEY  OF  LOVE  301 

NOTE — It  may  be  of  interest  to  those  who  have  followed 
the  story  of  Captain  Bickel  and  his  White  Ship  to  know  how 
the  work  among  the  Islands  has  been  cared  for  since  his 
death,  and  what  are  the  plans  for  the  future. 

During  the  summer  of  1917  a  Japanese  captain  was  em- 
ployed to  navigate  the  vessel,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Briggs,  of 
Himeji,  were  entrusted  with  the  evangelistic  side  of  the  work. 
In  the  fall,  however.  Air.  Briggs  fell  ill,  and  was  obliged  to 
lay  down  the  work  and  return  to  America.  He  died  soon 
after  reaching  San  Francisco.  St.  Francis  of  Himeji,  his 
missionary  friends  called  him,  and  the  Japanese  speak  of  him 
as  the  Sage  of  Bantan,  that  is,  of  the  two  provinces  of  Harima 
and  Tamba  in  which  he  laboured. 

Since  the  autumn  of  1917  the  evangelistic  work  among  the 
Islands  has  been  carried  on  in  a  somewhat  broken  way,  mis- 
sionaries and  Japanese  preachers  from  the  mainland  giving  a 
few  weeks'  help  each  to  the  Shepherds  of  the  Isles.  The 
Japanese  Captain  has  been  replaced  by  our  Captain's  son 
Philip,  so  that  the  Fukuin  Maru  has  again  her  Captain  Bickel. 

Recently  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fred  W.  Steadman,  of  Morioka, 
Japan,  who  have  had  many  years  of  experience  in  evangelistic 
missionary  work  in  Korea  and  Japan,  have  been  appointed  to 
take  charge  of  the  evangelistic  work  of  the  vessel.  They  are 
to  take  up  their  new  duties  in  the  autumn  of  the  present  year. 

September,  igi8. 


MISSIONS  AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD 

MRS.  H.   G.   UNDERWOOD 

Underwood  of  Korea 

A  Record  of  the  Life  and  Work  of  Horace  G. 
Underwood,  D.D.     Illustrated,  cloth,  net  $1.50. 

An  intimate  and  captivating  story  of  one  who  laborad 
nobly  and  faithfully  in  Korea  for  thirty-one  years,  pre- 
senting his  character,  consecration,  faith,  and  indomit- 
able courage. 

/.  C.  R.  EmNG,  D.D. 

A  Prince  of  the  Church  in  India 

The  Life  of  Rev.  Kali  Charan  Chatter jee, 
D.D.    Illustrated,  i2mo,  cloth,  net  75c. 

Robert  E,  Speer  says:  "It  is  a  noble  picture  of  a 
rich  and  devoted  life.  No  apologetic  or  argument  could 
equal  the  appeal  and  evidence  of  such  a  life." 

CORA  BANKS  PIERCE  and  HAZEL  NORTHROP 

Stories  from  Far  Away 

Illustrated,  i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00. 

Missionary  stories  for  little  folks,  simply  yet  engagingly 
told.  The  scenes  are  laid  in  Africa,  India,  China,  Japan, 
and  Persia. 

BRUCE  KINNEY,  D.D, 

Frontier  Missionary  Problems 

Their  Character  and  Solution 
Illustrated,   i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.25. 

A  practical  and  informative  survey  of  conditions  of 
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lems, the  Spanish  in  America,  Mormonism  and  what  he 
calls  "our  own   kith  and  kin." 

LUCY  SEAMAN  BAINBRIDGE 

Hon.  Supt.  Woman's  Branch,  N.  Y.  City  Mission  Societv 

Helping  the  Helpless  in  Lower 
New  York 

Illustrated,  i6mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00. 

Margaret  Slattery  says:  "I  feel  that  this  book  will  di- 
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from  a  friend." 

HARRIET  NEWELL  NOVES 

A  Light  in  the  Land  of  Sinim 

Illustrated,  cloth,  net  $1.50. 

An  authoritative  account  of  the  work  of  the  True 
Light  Seminary,  Canton,  China.  A  record  forty-five 
years  of  Christian  Service  on  the  part  of  Miss  Noyes 
and  her  associates  in  China. 


IN  OTHER  LANDS 


GAIUS  GLENN  ATKINS,  D.  D.     Author  or  Pilgrims  of 
-  the  Lonely  Road,'''' €tc. 

Jerusalem  Past  and  Present 

The  City  of  Undying  Memories.  Illustrated, 
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of  the  story  of  the  Holy  City,  treated  in  a  thoughtful,  in- 
spirational fashion,  in  which  the  chief  landmarks  in  her 
history  are  touched  upon  and  their  spiritual  significance 
duly  emphasized. 

CHARLES  KENDALL  HARRINGTON,  P.P. 

Captain  Bickel  of  *  The  Fukin  Maru ' 

Illustrated,  cloth,  net  $1.50. 

The  record  of  a  work  unique  in  modern  missionary 
work.  Captain  Bickel  on  his  gospel  ship  of  the  Inland 
Sea  became  the  best  loved  man  in  his  five-hundred  mile 
stretch   on  land. 

REF.  and  MRS.  ORRAMEL  HINCKLEY  GULICK 

The  Pilgrims  of  Hawaii 

Their  own  Story  of  Their  Pilgrimage  and  Life 
Work.     Illustrations,  $1.50. 

Dr.  James  L.  Barton  says:  "The  story  of  the  trans- 
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It  is  a  record  of  marvellous  events  in  human  and  divine 
history." 

MAUD  N.  WILLIAMS 

"The  Least  of  These'*— in  Colombia 

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A  vivid  account  of  colorful  experiences  in  South 
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being  a  record  of  hairbreath  escapes  or  tragical  occur- 
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ELIZABETH  PUTMAN  GORDON 

Alice  Gordon  Gulick:    ^IritspL 

Illustrated,  net  $1.50. 

The  subject  of  these  memoirs  was  an  American  woman 
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in  Spain.  The  story  of  this  devoted,  bright  gifted  won> 
an  is  clearly  and  interestingly  told  by  her  sister. 


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